CHAPTER X.
A SEASIDE ROMANCE.
Wilhelm's immediate destination was Ostend.

He hardly knew himself how he came to fix on that particular place.

Since those days, long past, when his thoughts had hovered for weeks round the Belgian watering-place, the name had remained in his mind, and now, with his desire to spend some months in company with the sea, Ostend was the first place that occurred to him.
It was the middle of July, and watering places not very full as yet, nor were there many people staying at the Ocean Hotel where he stopped.
Two Americans, who had begun a summer tour on the Continent by a short stay at Ostend, made friends with him on the first day after his arrival, when they found he could speak English.

They invited him to join them on their walks, and made him give them information about Germany, and especially about Berlin, which they intended visiting; in return they told him all about the north coast of France, with its watering-places, big and little, which they had "done" last year from Cherbourg to Dunkirk.
Strolling the next afternoon with his new acquaintances along the Digue, a few steps in front of them he saw a lady, plainly and darkly but most elegantly dressed leaning on the arm of a tall man.

They walked slowly, and were evidently lost in contemplation of the softly rolling sea.