There were merry, noisy groups of bathers in the shallow water near the shore, splashing one another, shrieking at the approach of the larger waves, bobbing up and down, and shouting encouragement to the newcomers, who only ventured timidly and by degrees into the chilly waters.

As very few of the bathers could swim, this all took place in the close vicinity.
At first Wilhelm had been rather shocked to see the two sexes bathing together, and that the girls and married women--coming out of the sea with their legs and arms bare, and their clinging, wet bathing dresses revealing the outline of their forms with embarrassing distinctness--should calmly stroll back to the bathing houses under the open gaze of the men.

For that reason he even refrained from going to the shore at the bathing hour, or bathing there himself.

By degrees, however, he grew accustomed to it, seeing that nobody thought anything of it, and that the almost nude figures disported themselves among their equally unconcerned parents, relatives, and friends with the naive unconsciousness of South Sea Islanders.
As he made his way, not too easily, over the rolling shingle between the chattering, lazy groups, he saw his neighbor of the table d'hote sitting, a little apart, on a camp stool under a large dark sunshade, an open book on her lap, and her eyes fixed on the smooth, bright surface of the ocean.

She noticed Wilhelm, and smiled and nodded pleasantly, almost before he could bow to her.