On an afternoon of oppressive idleness, George proposed to Hippolyte:
"Shall we go and visit the Trabocco?"
She answered:
"We'll go, if you like. But how can I cross the bridge? I have already tried it once."
"I will lead you by the hand."
"The plank is too narrow."
"We'll try."
They went there. They descended by the path. At the turn they found a sort of stairway hewn in the granite, hardly practicable, and the irregular steps of which stretched out as far as the reefs, at the end of the shaky bridge.
"You see! How can I manage?" said Hippolyte regretfully. "Even looking at it makes my head swim."
The first portion of the bridge was composed of a single plank, very narrow, upheld by stanchions fixed on the rock; the other part, broader, was formed of transverse thin deal boards, of an almost silvery whiteness, worm-eaten, brittle, badly joined, so thin that they seemed likely to break under the slightest pressure of the foot.