The Man Who Knew Too Much
only just trees. These things thrive like some unholy great seaweed that don't belong to the land at all. It's like the—the blessed sea serpent got on shore, Squire, and eating everything up."
"There is some stupid legend," said Squire Vane gruffly. "But come up into the garden; I want to introduce you to my daughter."
When, however, they reached the little table under the tree, the apparently immovable young lady had moved away after all, and it was some time before they came upon the track of her. She had risen, though languidly, and wandered slowly along the upper path of the terraced garden looking down on the lower path where it ran closer to the main bulk of the little wood by the sea.
Her languor was not a feebleness but rather a fullness of life, like that of a child half awake; she seemed to stretch herself and enjoy everything without noticing anything. She passed the wood, into the gray huddle of which a single white path vanished through a black hole. Along this part of the terrace ran something like a low rampart or balustrade, embowered with flowers at intervals; and she leaned over it, looking down at another glimpse of the glowing sea behind the clump of trees, and on another irregular path tumbling down to the pier and the boatman's cottage on the beach.
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