All at once her eye caught sight of some showy purple blossoms. "Eldorado yo he trovado!" she cried. "I verily believe it is a sea-rocket." She transferred it to her vasculum, and seated herself on a rock for a few minutes' rest. She proceeded to undo her packet of sandwiches, singing to herself all the time, as was her habit when light-hearted and quite alone; but the words that came into her head were not always so appropriate as on the occasion of her first visit to the beach; and at the present moment she was proclaiming with all the emphasis befitting a second encore-- "Fo--r he's going to marry Yum-Yum"-- when a sudden intuition made her look round, and, to her horror, she saw two men regarding her with an amused smile. One was elderly, ruddy, and commonplace; the other was young, sallow, mournful, and interesting. Both carried vasculums a good deal more battered and weather-beaten than Mona's own. She coloured up to the roots of her hair, and then made the best of the situation, laughing quietly, and proceeding with her sandwiches the while. The ruddy man lifted his hat with a friendly bow. "But for the nineteenth-century character of your song," he said, "I should have taken you for the nymph of the coast." "In a go-ahead county like this," said Mona gravely, returning his bow, "even the nymph of the coast is expected to keep pace with the times." "True," he said. "I had forgotten where I was. Has the nymph of the coast got anything interesting in her vasculum?" "Nothing really rare, I fear, though I have found a good deal that is new to me. Oh, by the way, I found a plant of penny-cress in some waste ground near Kilwinnie. Is that common here?" "_Thlaspi arvense?_" he said sceptically, looking at his sallow companion. The younger man shook his head. "I never saw it in the neighbourhood," he said. "I am quite open to conviction, of course," said Mona. and, rummaging in her vasculum, she produced a bunch of large, flat, green "pennies." "Right," chuckled the elder man triumphantly--"see that?" "Y-e-s. It's curious I never saw it before--and near Kilwinnie, too. But it seems all right; it is not likely to be a garden escape." And they proceeded to compare specimens with much interest and enthusiasm. "We intended to go on a little farther," said the elderly gentleman at last. "As you are botanising also, perhaps you will join us?" Mona assented gladly, and they walked together a few miles along the coast, before turning back towards Kilwinnie. "I suppose you have done no microscopic botany?" said her friend suddenly. This, from Rachel's point of view, was approaching dangerous ground; but she was never likely to see these men again. They did not look like natives. "Yes, I have done a little," said Mona. "I have attended a botany class." "Indeed! May I ask where?" "In London"--and as he still looked at her enquiringly, "at University College," she added.