The only remark following him was, "There he goes!" He went to the seaward gate of the house on the beach, made practicable in a low flint wall, where he was met by his sister Martha, to whom he handed the basket.

Apparently he named the cost of his purchase per dozen.

She touched the fish and pressed the bellies of the topmost, it might be to question them tenderly concerning their roes.

Then the couple passed out of sight.

Herrings were soon after this despatching their odours through the chimneys of all Crikswich, and there was that much of concord and festive union among the inhabitants.
The house on the beach had been posted where it stood, one supposes, for the sake of the sea-view, from which it turned right about to face the town across a patch of grass and salt scurf, looking like a square and scornful corporal engaged in the perpetual review of an awkward squad of recruits.