So to Cornwall I went, and found the sands and the coves and the rocks
and the sea, just as Diana had said, nor was I disappointed in the back
view of Sara with her petticoats tucked into her bathing-drawers. It was
divine. She was delicious, too, paddling, and there were enough nurses
to prevent her doing more, if necessary, and Diana and I could, if we
liked, lie on the sands and watch the children. But it so happens that I
love building castles and making puddings, and, curiously enough, Diana
does too, and we were children once more with perhaps less hinge in our
backs than formerly, but still we enjoyed ourselves immensely.
Betty, the first day, full of faith, tried to walk on the sea, and was
pulled out very wet and disappointed, and her faith a little shaken,
perhaps, for the moment. Hugh told her she didn't have faith hard
enough. "You must go like this," and he held his breath, threatening to
become purple in the face.
"Could you now?" said Betty wistfully, when Hugh was at his reddest.
"No!" he said, "because I burst. Aunt Woggles looked at me when I was
just believing very hard."
Betty forgot that trouble in her infinite delight at discovering where
Heaven really was. She knew if she could just row out to the silver
pathway across the sea, it would lead straight to Heaven. "I know it
would," she said.
Hugh objected because Heaven was in the sky, that he knew! Betty said
how did he know?
"Well, look," said Hugh; "you can see it's all bright and blue and
shining, and angels fly, and you can't fly on the sea, so that shows."
Betty wasn't sure of that because of flying-fish; she'd seen them in
a book where "F" was for flying-fish, so she knew. But Hugh knew that
angels weren't fish, because fish is good to eat and angels aren't.
I was glad the culinary knowledge of Hugh and Betty didn't extend to
"angels on horseback," or where should we have been in the abysses of
argument?
We made expeditions which, as expeditions, were not a success. Sara
objected to leaving the object of her passing affections, a starfish
perhaps, and Hugh and Betty also always found treasures of their very
own, which they must just watch for just a little time, in case they
did something exciting. These things hinder! But still we did sometimes
reach another cove, and one day, in a very secluded one, I caught sight
of a pair of lovers. One can tell the most discreet of them at a glance,
and more than a glance I should never have given this pair had not the
girl, so much of her as I could see under a brown mushroom hat, been
very pretty. Her dress too was green muslin, which was in itself
compelling, and the boy with her, I felt sure, had passed no
examinations. And yet they were deliriously happy, that I could tell.
So the father wasn't so cruel, after all, and I doubted whether I should
have been the comfort to Veronica that she had anticipated. In fact,
I could easily imagine how greatly in the way I should have been. Poor
professional friend! That I had at least been spared from becoming.
Veronica, no less than Betty, had discovered where Heaven really was,
and the boy had a clearer definition of angels than Hugh. Hugh was right
so far--they were in no way related to, or bore any resemblance to,
fish. They were angels pure and simple, and the most beautiful of them,
the most enchanting of them, wore a green muslin and a brown mushroom
hat.
If I had been that young man, I should have objected to the dimensions
of that hat, but he didn't, I suppose. Not having passed his
examinations may have made a difference. He would later on, no doubt. It
is a pity, perhaps, that men have to pass examinations; it robs them of
much of their simplicity.