At first she did not seem to notice me. Wearing over her dress a light waterproof which the strong wind wrapped closely round her body, she was leaning on her elbows on the rail; one hand was placed under her chin and the other held the brim of her hat which otherwise would have stood a good chance of being carried away into the sea. She seemed to me to be about sixteen years old, but at the same time she was remarkably well made for a girl of that age. My eyes devoured the small and supple outline of her waist and the fine development of her behind which, placed as she was, she seemed to be offering to some bold caress, unless perchance it might be to a still more delightful punishment. .

On her feet she wore a charming pair of high-heeled brown shoes which set off to the best advantage the smallness and daintiness of her extremities.

I came close up to her without her making the slightest movement or even looking in my direction, and I stood for a few moments without saying a word, taking a subtle and intimate pleasure in examining every detail of her beauty, her splendid thick pigtail of dark silky hair, the fine arch of her ears, the whiteness of her neck, the delicacy of her eyebrows, what I could see of her splendid dark eyes, the aristocratic smallness of her nose and its mobile nostrils, the softness of her rosy little mouth and the animation of her healthy complexion.

Then suddenly I made up my mind.

'We are in for rough crossing!' I said. She turned her little head slowly towards me and for a moment examined me in silence. And now, seen full face, I found her even more beautiful and more attractive than she had seemed before when I had only been able to obtain a side view.

Apparently her examination of me was favourable, for a slight smile disclosed the prettiest little teeth that it is possible to imagine and she answered, 'Do you think so? I don't mind if we are!'