on fresh, sculling with his arms bare, a cigarette
in his mouth, a monocle in his eye, and a pith-helmet, such as is worn
in India. The young ladies used to gather on the sands to watch him as
he struck the water with the broad blade of his scull, near enough for
them to see and to admire his nautical ability. They thought all his
jokes amusing, and they delighted in his way of seizing his partner for
a waltz and bearing her off as if she were a prize, hardly allowing her
to touch the floor.

Fred thought him, with his stock of old jokes, very ill-mannered. He
laughed at his sculling, and had a great mind to strike him after he
saw him waltzing with Jacqueline. But he had to acknowledge the general
appreciation felt for the fellow whom he called vulgar.

Raoul Wermant did not stay long at Treport. He had only come to see his
sisters on his way to Dieppe, where he expected to meet a certain Leah
Skip, an actress from the 'Nouveautes'. If he kept her waiting, however,
for some days, it was because he was loath to leave the handsome
Madame de Villegry, who was living near her friend Madame de Nailles,
recruiting herself after the fatigues of the winter season. Such being
the situation, the young girls of the Blue Band might have tried in vain
to make any impression upon him. But the hatred with which he inspired
Fred found some relief in the composition of fragments of melancholy
verse, which the young midshipman hid under his mattresses. It is not an
uncommon thing for naval men to combine a love of the sea with a love
of poetry. Fred's verses were not good, but they were full of dejection.
The poor fellow compared Raoul Wermant to Faust, and himself to Siebel.
He spoke of

The youth whose eyes were brimming with salt tears,
Whose heart was troubled by a thousand fears,
Poor slighted lover!-since in his heavy heart
All his illusions perish and depart.

Again, he wrote of Siebel:

O Siebel!--thine is but the common fate!
They told thee Fortune upon youth would wait;
'Tis false when love's in question-and you may--

Here he enumerated all the proofs of tenderness possible for a woman to
give her lover, and then he added:

You may know all, poor Siebel!--all, some day,
When weary of this life and all its dreams,
You learn to know it is not what it seems;
When there is nothing that can cheer you more,
All that remains is