g herself up entirely to the childish
enjoyment of pulling the creatures out from among the waving
sea-grasses.

Roland suddenly exclaimed:

"Ah, here comes Mme. Roland to join us."

She had remained at first on the beach with Pierre, for they had neither
of them any wish to play at running about among the rocks and paddling
in the tide-pools; and yet they had felt doubtful about staying
together. She was afraid of him, and her son was afraid of her and of
himself; afraid of his own cruelty which he could not control. But they
sat down side by side on the stones. And both of them, under the heat of
the sun, mitigated by the sea-breeze, gazing at the wide, fair horizon
of blue water streaked and shot with silver, thought as if in unison:
"How delightful this would have been--once."

She did not venture to speak to Pierre, knowing that he would return
some hard answer; and he dared not address his mother, knowing that
in spite of himself he should speak violently. He sat twitching the
water-worn pebbles with the end of his cane, switching them and turning
them over. She, with a vague look in her eyes, had picked up three or
four little stones and was slowly and mechanically dropping them from
one hand into the other. Then her unsettled gaze, wandering over the
scene before her, discerned, among the weedy rocks, her son Jean fishing
with Mme. Rosemilly. She looked at them, watching their movements, dimly
understanding, with motherly instinct, that they were talking as they
did not talk every day. She saw them leaning over side by side when they
looked into the water, standing face to face when they questioned their
hearts, then scrambled up the rock and seated themselves to come to an
understanding. Their figures stood out very sharply, looking as if they
were alone in the middle of the wide horizon, and assuming a sort of
symbolic dignity in that vast expanse of sky and sea and cliff.

Pierre, too, was looking at them, and a harsh laugh suddenly broke form
his lips. Without turning to him Mme. Roland said:

"What is it?"

He spoke with a sneer.

"I am learning. Learning how a man lays himself out to be cozened by his
wife."

She flushed with rage, exasperated by the insinuation she believed was
intended.

"In whose name do you say that?"

"In Jean's, by Heaven! It is immensely funny to see those two."

She murmured in a low voice, tremulous with feeling: "O Pierre, how
cruel you are! That woman is honesty