CHAPTER 1.V.
As the morning lengthened whole parties appeared over the sand-hills and came down on the beach to bathe.

It was understood that at eleven o'clock the women and children of the summer colony had the sea to themselves.

First the women undressed, pulled on their bathing dresses and covered their heads in hideous caps like sponge bags; then the children were unbuttoned.

The beach was strewn with little heaps of clothes and shoes; the big summer hats, with stones on them to keep them from blowing away, looked like immense shells.

It was strange that even the sea seemed to sound differently when all those leaping, laughing figures ran into the waves.