Then she went out again till the hottest part of the day, during
which a bit of French and of English reading was expected from her,
and half an hour of needle-work; then her dinner; and then out again-
-with her aunts this time, Aunt Jane in a wheeled-chair, and Aunt
Barbara walking with her--this was rather dreary; but when they went
in she was allowed to stay out with Josephine, with only one interval
in the house for tea, till it grew dark, and she was so sleepy with
the salt wind, that she was ready for bed, and had no time to think
of the Lord Chancellor.
At first, watching those wonderful and beautiful waves was pleasure
enough; and then she was allowed, to her wonder and delight, to have
a holland dress, and dig in the sand, making castles and moats, or
rocks and shipwrecks, with beautiful stories about them; and
sometimes she hunted for the few shells and sea-weeds there, or she
sat down and read some of her favourite books, especially poetry--it
suited the sea so well; and she was trying to make Ellen's Isle and
all the places of the "Lady of the Lake" in sand, only she never had
time to finish them, and they always were either thrown down or
washed away before she could return to them.
But among all these amusements, she was watching the families of
children who played together, happy creatures! The little sturdy
boys, that dabbled about so merrily, and minded so little the "Now
Masters" of their indignant nurses; the little girls in brown hats,
with their baskets full; the big boys, that even took off shoes, and
dabbled in the shallow water; the great sieges of large castles,
where whole parties attacked and defended--it was a sort of
melancholy glimpse of fairy-land to her, for she had only been
allowed to walk on the beach with Josephine on condition she never
spoke to the other children.
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