This has nothing to do with our story except that it is approximately the substance of a statement made by Sally to Miss Arkwright,
who was interested, and had been promised it all over again to-morrow. For the present she could talk about the pier and take her audience for granted.
"But was it that Kensington Gardens business that did the job?" asked Sally, in the shadow of the breakwater, getting the black hair dry after three-quarters of an hour in the sea; because caps, you know, are all nonsense as far as keeping water out goes. So Sally had to sit ever so long with it out to dry. And the very tiny pebbles you can almost see into stick to your hands, as you know, and come off in your hair when you run them through it, and have to be combed out. At least, Sally's had. But she kept on running the pebbles through her still blue fingers for all that as she half lay, half sat by Tishy on the beach.
"'Did the job!'" repeats the bride on her honeymoon with some indignation. "Sally dear, when will you learn to be more refined in your ways of speech? I'm not a précieuse, but—'did the job!' Really, Sally!..."
"Observe the effect of three weeks in France. The Julius Bradshaws can parlay like anything! No, Tishy darling, don't be a stuck-upper, but tell me again about Kensington Gardens."
"I told you. It was just like that. Julius and I were walking up the avenue—you know...."
"The one that goes up and across, and comes straight like this?" Tishy, helped by a demonstration of blue finger-tips, recognises this, strange to say.
"No, not that one. It doesn't matter. We didn't see mamma coming till she was ever so close, because of the Speke Monument in the way. And what could possess her to come home that way from Hertford Street, Mayfair, I cannot imagine!"
"Never mind, Tishy dear! It's no use crying over spilled milk. What did she say?"
"Nothing, dear. She turned purple, and bowed civilly. To Julius, of course. But it included me, whether or no."