e.

After a two-hours' drive the break turned off to the left, past a
windmill at work--a melancholy, gray wreck, half rotten and doomed, the
last survivor of its ancient race; then it went into a pretty inn yard,
and drew up at the door of a smart little house, a hostelry famous in
those parts.

The mistress, well known as "La belle Alphonsine," came smiling to the
threshold, and held out her hand to the two ladies who hesitated to take
the high step.

Some strangers were already at breakfast under a tent by a grass-plot
shaded by apple trees--Parisians, who had come from Etretat; and from
the house came sounds of voices, laughter, and the clatter of plates and
pans.

They were to eat in a room, as the outer dining-halls were all full.
Roland suddenly caught sight of some shrimping nets hanging against the
wall.

"Ah! ha!" cried he, "you catch prawns here?"

"Yes," replied Beausire. "Indeed it is the place on all the coast where
most are taken."

"First-rate! Suppose we try to catch some after breakfast."

As it happened it would be low tide at three o'clock, so it was settled
that they should all spend the afternoon among the rocks, hunting
prawns.

They made a light breakfast, as a precaution against the tendency of
blood to the head when they should have their feet in the water. They
also wished to reserve an appetite for dinner, which had been ordered on
a grand scale and to be ready at six o'clock when they came in.

Roland could not sit still for impatience. He wanted to buy the nets
specially constructed for fishing prawns, not unlike those used for
catching butterflies in the country. Their name on the French coast is
_lanets_; they are netted bags on a circular wooden frame, at the end of
a long pole. Alphonsine, still smiling, was happy to lend them. Then she
helped the two ladies to make an impromptu change of toilet, so as
not to spoil their dresses. She offered them skirts, coarse worsted
stockings and hemp shoes. The men took off their socks and went to the
shoemaker's to buy wooden shoes instead.

Then they set out, the nets over their shoulders and creels on their
backs. Mme. Rosemilly was very sweet in this costume, with an unexpected
charm of countrified audacity. The skirt which Alphonsine had lent her,
coquettishly tucked up and firmly stitched so as to allow of her running
and jumping fearlessly on the rocks, displayed her ankle and lower
calf--the firm calf of a strong and agile lit