"They're bought in Polchester." "Mother says," said Charlotte, "that if you're not pretty it doesn't matter where you buy your clothes." They arrived on the beach and stared about them.

It became at once a great question as to where Mrs.Le Page would sit.

She could not sit on the sand which looked damp, nor equally, of course, on a rock that was spiky and hard.

What to do with her?
She stood in the middle of the beach, still holding up her skirts, gazing desperately about her, looking first at one spot and then at another.
"Oh, dear, the heat!" she exclaimed.

"Is there no shade anywhere?
Perhaps in that farm-house over there..." It was probable enough that no member of the Cole family would have minded banishing Mrs.Le Page into the farmhouse, but it would have meant that the whole party must accompany her.