“Shall we make our way to the sands?” he asked softly.
“If we can,” said Lili, glad at the idea. “Mamma will not mind, I suppose?”
“Oh, of course not, under my care,” he said reassuringly, and with evident pride.
They quickly passed through the turnstile. With a feeling of relief they descended the steps of the terrace, crossed over the road, and hastened down the broad flight of steps that led to the sands. Here and there a Scheveninger was strolling along with a [[167]]slow, measured, heavy step, keeping time with the swaying of his companion’s thick mass of petticoats.
And straight in front of the Kurhaus, bathed in the yellow glow of the gas-light, the waves were washing with refreshingly cool sound.
“Ah!” cried Lili, “how much nicer it is here!”
The sea, calm and unruffled, was flowing on in tints of green, azure, and violet, here and there capped with glistening white foam all along the beach. In the sky above myriads of stars sparkled, and the Milky Way seemed like a cloth of pearls in the midst of the mysterious infinity of faint blue. From out of the sea there seemed to rise an indefinable murmur, like that produced by a gigantic sea-shell.
“How beautiful and quiet it is here, after the noise yonder; it’s quite entrancing!” murmured Lili in ecstasy.
“Yes,” answered Georges.
She nearly stumbled over something; thereupon he asked her to take his arm, and she did so. It seemed to him as though he had very much to say to her, and as though he would never be able to express himself without appearing ridiculous. She too felt a delicious longing to open her mind, to speak about the sea and sky which seemed to her so beautiful; but she felt a little ashamed at the poesy that was in her heart, which contrasted too drolly with the prosy commonplace circles in which they generally moved. She feared to appear affected, and she said nothing. They both kept silent as they slowly walked along, with the roar of the sea in their ears, and with a soft soothing feeling in their hearts that seemed to them more expressive than words.