f the prison door
when a marriage should be arranged for them. They order this matter
better in Europe; or, at least, differently, for there, as a discerning
observer has pointed out, marriage means always that a woman is taken
down from the shelf, while with us, alas, too often! that she is placed
upon it, never to be removed!

To this class, too, belonged certain obese women and emaciated men
sitting, in couples, under the gay sunshades with which the beach was
bright. The women were dressed always in gowns which, however ornate,
were not quite new, not quite fresh, not quite clean; and the black
coats of the men were a little shiny at the elbow, a little faded at the
seams. But madame still took care to preserve such figure as unkind fate
had left her; and monsieur still kept his moustaches waxed to a needle's
point; and they sat there together, quite immovable, for hours at a
time, staring drearily out toward the horizon, meditating, no doubt,
over past glories, or arranging some coup by which their fortunes might
be retrieved. Pride will slip from them gradually, as the years pass;
madame will abandon her figure and monsieur his moustaches, and they
will end their days miserably in some second- or third-rate
pension--even, perhaps, the Maison Vauquer!

The water was more interesting, being at once more natural and lively.
With it there was no question of maintaining the equilibrium of its
position; there was no need of air or artifice; there was none of that
heartburning with which the latest Pontifical Princess smilingly
swallows the insolence of the descendant (a la main gauche) of the Great
Henri, happy to have been noticed, even though to be noticed meant
inevitably to be snubbed. There was a freedom about the water, an honest
vulgarity, a quality as of Rabelais, refreshingly in contrast with the
hot-house manners and morals of the haute noblesse. Madame need not
hesitate to cross her legs, if she found that attitude comfortable;
monsieur could at once remove coat, waist-coat, collar, cuffs, if he
found the weather warm.

Families whose size testified to their bourgeois respectability, lolled
in happy promiscuity upon the sands; the children constructed forts or
canals, the women tore some neighbour's reputation to pieces, the men
lay back lazily and smoked and kept an eye out for the bathers.

There were always many scores of them, belonging principally to that
strange and tragic half-world which hangs sus