imbs in froth;
the singing foam rolled her over and over, stranding her on bubbling
sands, until the swell found her again, lifted her, and tossed her
seaward into the wide, white arms of the breakers.

Back to land she drifted and scrambled up on the beach, a slender,
drenched figure, glistening and flashing with every movement.

Dainty of limb as a cat in wet grass, she shook the spray from her
fingers and scrubbed each palm with sand, then sprang again headlong
into the surf; there was a flash, a spatter, and she vanished.

After a long, long while, far out on the water she rose, floating.

Now the red sun, pushing above the ocean's leaden rim, flung its
crimson net across the water. String after string of white-breasted
sea-ducks beat to windward from the cove, whirling out to sea; the
gray gulls flapped low above the shoal and settled in rows along the
outer bar, tossing their sun-tipped wings; the black cormorant on the
cliff craned its hideous neck, scanning the ocean with restless,
brilliant eyes.

Tossed back once more upon the beach like an opalescent shell,
Jacqueline, ankle-deep in foam, looked out across the flaming waters,
her drenched hair dripping.

From the gorse on cliff and headland, one by one the larks shot
skyward like amber rockets, trailing a shower of melody till the whole
sky rained song. The crested vanneaux, passing out to sea, responded
plaintively, flapping their bronze-green wings.

The girl twisted her hair and wrung it till the last salt drop had
fallen. Sitting there in the sands, idle fingers cracking the pods of
gilded sea-weed, she glanced up at me and laughed contentedly.
Presently she rose and walked out to a high ledge, motioning me to
follow. Far below, the sun-lit water shimmered in a shallow basin of
silver sand.

"Look!" she cried, flinging her arms above her head, and dropped into
space, falling like a star, down, down into the shallow sea. Far below
I saw a streak of living light shoot through the water--on, on, closer
to the surface now, and at last she fairly sprang into the air,
quivering like a gaffed salmon, then fell back to float and clear her
blue eyes from her tangled hair.

She gave me a glance full of malice as she landed, knowing quite well
that she had not only won, but had given me a shock with her long dive
into scarce three feet of water.

Presently she climbed to the sun-warmed hillock of sand and sat down
beside me to dry her hair.

A langous