As the weather was beautiful and very warm, Madam Cosima bathed in the
lake nearly every day with her little girls, and I was invited to join
in this cool recreation.
Under the shadow cast by the little shed of the landing-place,
which deepened the blue of the limpid water, we very prudently
disported ourselves. Madam Cosima and the children wore long white
dressing-gowns; she, with her blond hair hanging in braids, seemed
like a saint surrounded by cherubs, or even a swan guiding her brood.
I, myself, was in a bathing costume, and so I ventured beyond the
prescribed limits into the clearer blue and the sunlight, cutting
capers, and feeling very flattered by the admiration which my ease
and audacity as a swimmer aroused among those who could not leave the
shelter. But, when I had gone a little too far away, and a chorus
of clear, sweet voices called me back with cries and supplications,
then I returned very obediently and stood again in shallow water, and
joined with the merry circle in madly splashing the water into the air,
laughing with them as it fell again in showers of pearls.