und she saw a multitude
of curious, great-eyed, black heads, something like the heads of boys,
and something like the heads of dogs, thrusting from the water, and
flashing under it again at sight of them with a swish that sent the
spray into the air. She sprang to her feet. "Oh, look at those things!
Look at them! Look at them!" She laid vehement hands upon the young man,
and pushed him in the direction in which she wished him to look, at some
risk of pushing him overboard, while he laughed at her ecstasy.

"They're seals. The bay's full of them. Did you never see them on the
reef at Jocelyn's?"

"I never saw them before!" she cried. "How wonderful they are! Oh!" she
shouted; as one of them glanced sadly at her over its shoulder, and then
vanished with a whirl of the head. "The Beatrice Cenci attitude!"

"They 're always trying that," said Libby. "Look yonder." He pointed to
a bank of mud which the tide had not yet covered, and where a herd of
seals lay basking in the sun. They started at his voice, and wriggling
and twisting and bumping themselves over the earth to the water's edge,
they plunged in. "Their walk isn't so graceful as their swim. Would
you like one for a pet, Miss Breen? That's all they 're good for since
kerosene came in. They can't compete with that, and they're not the kind
that wear the cloaks."

She was standing with her hand pressed hard upon his shoulder.

"Did they ever kill them?"

"They used to take that precaution."

"With those eyes? It was murder!" She withdrew her hand and sat down.

"Well, they only catch them, now. I tried it myself once. I set out at
low tide, about ten o'clock, one night, and got between the water
and the biggest seal on the bank. We fought it out on that line till
daylight."

"And did you get it?" she demanded, absurdly interested.

"No, it got me. The tide came in, and the seal beat."

"I am glad of that."

"Thank you."

"What did you want with it?"

"I don't think I wanted it at all. At any rate, that's what I always
said. I shall have to ask you to sit on this side," he added, loosening
the sheet and preparing to shift the sail. "The wind has backed round a
little more to the south, and it's getting lighter."

"If it's going down we shall be late," she said, with an intimation of
apprehension.

"We shall be at Leyden on time. If the wind falls then, I can get a
horse at the stable and have you driven back."

"Well."

He kept scanning the sky.