All these many-hued dresses which covered the sands like nosegays, these pretty stuffs, those showy parasols, the fictitious grace of tightened waists, all the ingenious devices of fashion from the smart little shoe to the extravagant hat, the seductive charm of gesture, voice, and smile, all the coquettish airs in short displayed on this seashore, suddenly struck him as stupendous efflorescences of female depravity.

All these bedizened women aimed at pleasing, bewitching, and deluding some man.

They had dressed themselves out for men--for all men--all excepting the husband whom they no longer needed to conquer.

They had dressed themselves out for the lover of yesterday and the lover of to-morrow, for the stranger they might meet and notice or were perhaps on the lookout for.
And these men sitting close to them, eye to eye and mouth to mouth, invited them, desired them, hunted them like game, coy and elusive notwithstanding that it seemed so near and so easy to capture.

This wide shore was, then, no more than a love-market where some sold, others gave themselves--some drove a hard bargain for their kisses while others promised them for love.