Possessed by the spirit of the place and hour, she even caught herself straying by the extreme brink, and repeating those touching lines from "Affection's Keepsake":-- "The eye roams widely o'er glad Nature's face, To mark each varied and delightful scene; The simple and magnificent we trace, While loveliness and brightness intervene; Oh! everywhere is something found to--" At this point Miss Limpenny's gaze lost its dreamy expansiveness, and grew rigid with horror.

Immediately before her feet, and indelicately confronting her, lay a suit of man's clothing.
It is a curious fact, though one we need not linger to discuss, that while clothes are the very symbol and first demand of decency, few things become so flagrantly immodest when viewed in themselves and apart from use.

The crimson rushed to Miss Limpenny's cheek.
She uttered a cry and looked around.
Inexorable fate, whose compulsion directed that gaze! If raiment apart from its wearer be unseemly, how much more-- About thirty yards from her, wading down the stream, and tugging the painter of his recovered boat, advanced Mr.Fogo.
To add a final touch of horror, that gentleman, finding that the damp on his spectacles completely dimmed his vision, had deposited them in the boat, and was therefore blind to the approaching catastrophe.
Unconscious even of observation, he advanced nearer and nearer.
Miss Limpenny's emotion found vent in a squeal.
Mr.Fogo, heard, halted, and gazed blankly around.
"How singular!" he murmured.

"I could have sworn I heard a cry." He made another step.

The sound was repeated, more shrilly.
"Again! And, dear me, it sounds human--as of some fellow-creature in distress." "Go away! Go away at once!" "Eh?
Bless my soul, what can it be ?" Mr.Fogo stared in the direction whence the voice proceeded, but of course without seeing anything.
"I beg your pardon ?" he observed mildly.
"Go away!" "If you will allow me--" he began, courteously addressing vacancy.
"Monster!" The awful truth began to dawn upon him, and was followed by a hasty impulse to dive.
"If," he stammered, "I am right in supposing myself to address a lady--" "Don't talk to me, but go away." "I was about to ask permission to resume my spectacles, which I have unfortunately laid aside." "No, no.