And he shrank still lower among the bracken, for though he had watched the distant little figure in white with a slight sense of sacrilege, and absolutely no sense of impropriety but only of enjoyment, he would not for all he was worth have had her know that he had watched at all, since he could imagine how she would resent it.
Nevertheless, these unconscious revelations of her real self were to him as jewels of price, and he treasured the memory of them accordingly.
He watched them swim back and disappear among the rocks, and presently go merrily up the bare slope again; and he lay long in the bracken, scarce daring to move, and when he did, he crept away warily, as one guilty of a trespass.
And glad he was that he had done so, for he had proof of her feeling that same night at supper.
Peter Mauger came sheepishly in again with Tom, and Tom, when he had satisfied the edge of his hunger, must wax facetious in his brotherly way.
"Peter and me was sitting among the rocks over against big pool s'afternoon and we saw things"-- with a grin.
"Aw, Tom!" deprecated Peter in red confusion.
"An' Peter, he said he never seen anything so pretty in all his life as--" "Aw now, Tom, you're a liar! I never said anything about it." "You thought it, or your face was liar too, my boy.

Like a dog after a rabbit it was." "It was just like you both to lie watching," flamed Nance.

"If you'd both go and jump into the sea every day you'd be a great deal nicer than you are; and if you'd stop there it would be a great deal nicer for us." "Aw--Nance!" from Peter, and a great guffaw from Tom, while Gard devoted himself guiltily to his plate.
"You looked nice before you went in," chuckled Tom, who never knew when to stop, "but you looked a sight nicer when you came out and sat on rocks with it all stuck to you--" "You're a--a--a disgusting thing, Tom Hamon, and you're just as bad, Peter Mauger!" and she looked as if she would have flown at them, but, instead, jumped up and flung out of the room.
Gard's innate honesty would not permit him to take up the cudgels this time.

Inwardly he felt himself involved in her condemnation, though none but himself knew it.
But he had taken at times to glowering at Tom, when his rudeness passed bounds, in a way which made that young man at once uncomfortable and angry, and at times provoked him to clownish attempts at reprisal.
Mrs.Hamon bore with the black sheep quietly, since nothing else was possible to her, though her annoyance and distress were visible enough.
Old Tom was completely obsessed with his visions of wealth ever just beyond the point of his pick.

He toiled long hours in the damp darknesses below seas, with the sounds of crashing waves and rolling boulders close above him, and at times threateningly audible through the stratum of rocks between; and when he did appear at meals he was too weary to trouble about anything beyond the immediate satisfaction of his needs.