And
they were not seen again. Their meaning none knew. Having paid their bill
at the lodging-house, their conduct was ascribed to systematic madness.
English people came to Crikswich for the pure salt sea air, and they did
not expect it to be cooked and dressed and decorated for them. If these
things are done to nature, it is nature no longer that you have, but
something Frenchified. Those French are for trimming Neptune's beard!
Only wait, and you are sure to find variety in nature, more than you may
like. You will find it in Neptune. What say you to a breach of the
sea-wall, and an inundation of the aromatic grass-flat extending from the
house on the beach to the tottering terraces, villas, cottages: and
public-house transformed by its ensign to Hotel, along the frontage of
the town? Such an event had occurred of old, and had given the house on
the beach the serious shaking great Neptune in his wrath alone can give.
But many years had intervened. Groynes had been run down to intercept him
and divert him.
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