Work was more impossible for me than ever, and I had to feed and clothe myself." "How long ago was that ?" asked Waymark, without looking up.
"Four months." Ida rose from the beach.

The tide had gone down some distance; there were stretches of smooth sand, already dry in the sunshine.
"Let us walk back on the sands," she said, pointing.
"You are going home ?" "Yes, I want to rest a little.

I will meet you again about eight o'clock, if you like." Waymark accompanied her as far as the door, then strolled on to his own lodgings, which were near at hand.

It was only the second day that they had been in Hastings, yet it seemed to him as if he had been walking about on the seashore with Ida for weeks.

For all that, he felt that he was not as near to her now as he had been on certain evenings in London, when his arrival was to her a manifest pleasure, and their talk unflagging from hour to hour.