at country dinner tables. They look like shrivelled specks of
cardboard. But in the water they begin to grow larger and to unfold
themselves into unexpected patterns of flowers of all colours. That is
how I feel--expanding, and taking on other tints. New problems, new
influences, are at work upon me. It is as if I needed altogether fresh
standards. Sometimes I feel almost ashamed--"

"Ashamed? My dear Heard, this will never do. You must take a blue pill
when we get home."

"Can it be the south wind?"

"Everybody blames the poor sirocco. I imagine you have long been
maturing for this change, unbeknown to yourself. And what does it mean?
Only that you are growing up. Nobody need be ashamed of growing up. . . .
Here we are, at last! We will land at the little beach yonder, near
the end of that gulley. You can go ashore and have a look at the old
thermal establishment. It used to be a gay place with a theatre and
ballrooms and banqueting rooms. Nobody dare enter it nowadays. Haunted!
Perhaps you will see the ghost. As for me, I mean to take a swim. I
always feel as if I needed a bath after talking about religion. You
don't mind my saying so, do you?"

Mr. Heard, climbing upwards from the beach, felt as though he did not
mind what anyone said about anything.

With the Devil's Rock the most imposing tract of Nepenthean
cliff--scenery came to an abrupt end. That mighty escarpment was its
furthest outpost. Thereafter the land fell seawards no longer
precipitously, but in wavy earthen slopes intersected by ravines which