"Come out of there, y' ol' fool," said he, in an enraged whisper. "It's only your accursed vanity. Wear it anyhow. What difference does it make? I never saw such a vain ol' idiot!" As he was storming the door opened, and his friend confronted him. The tall man's legs gave way, and he fell against the opposite door. The freckled man regarded him sternly. "You're an ass," he said. His back curved in scorn. He walked majestically down the alley. There was pride in the way his chubby feet patted the boards. The tall man followed, weakly, his eyes riveted upon the figure ahead. As a disguise the freckled man had adopted the stomach of importance. He moved with an air of some sort of procession, across a board walk, down some steps, and out upon the sand. There was a pug dog and three old women on a bench, a man and a maid with a book and a parasol, a seagull drifting high in the wind, and a distant, tremendous meeting of sea and sky. Down on the wet sand stood a girl being wooed by the breakers. The freckled man moved with stately tread along the beach. The tall man, numb with amazement, came in the rear. They neared the girl. Suddenly the tall man was seized with convulsions. He laughed, and the girl turned her head. She perceived the freckled man in the bathing-suit. An expression of wonderment overspread her charming face. It changed in a moment to a pearly smile. This smile seemed to smite the freckled man. He obviously tried to swell and fit his suit. Then he turned a shrivelling glance upon his companion, and fled up the beach. The tall man ran after him, pursuing with mocking cries that tingled his flesh like stings of insects. He seemed to be trying to lead the way out of the world. But at last he stopped and faced about. "Tom Sharp," said he, between his clenched teeth, "you are an unutterable wretch! I could grind your bones under my heel." The tall man was in a trance, with glazed eyes fixed on the bathing-dress. He seemed to be murmuring: "Oh, good Lord! Oh, good Lord! I never saw such a suit!" The freckled man made the gesture of an assassin. "Tom Sharp, you--" The other was still murmuring: "Oh, good Lord! I never saw such a suit! I never--" The freckled man ran down into the sea. CHAPTER II. The cool, swirling waters took his temper from him, and it became a thing that is lost in the ocean. The tall man floundered in, and the two forgot and rollicked in the waves. The freckled man, in endeavouring to escape from mankind, had left all save a solitary fisherman under a large hat, and three boys in bathing-dress, laughing and splashing upon a raft made of old spars. The two men swam softly over the ground swells.