"Only a splash of sea-water, I think," replied Lashmar, standing close beside her.
Both gazed at the dark vast of sea and sky. A pair of ramblers approached them; a young man and a girl, talking loudly the tongue of lower London.
"I know a young lady," sounded in the feminine voice, "as 'as a keeper set with a di'mond and a hamethys—lovely!"
"Come away," said Dyce. "What a hateful place this is! How can you bear to be among such brutes?"
Iris moved on by him, but said nothing.
"I felt ashamed," he added, "to find you with people like the Barkers. Do you mean to say they don't disgust you?"
"They are not so bad as that," Iris weakly protested. "But you mustn't think I regard them as intimate friends. It's only that—I've been rather lonely lately. Len away at school—and several things—"
"Yes, yes, I understand. But they're no company for you. Do get away as soon as possible."
Another couple went by them talking loudly the same vernacular.
"If I put a book down for a day," said the young woman, "I forget all I've read. I've a hawful bad memory for readin'."