"I shall ask you to leave my cove if you're not careful," she said. "Mermaid," I said, "I apologize. I was unaware that I had the honour to speak to the lady of the manor." "Well, if you didn't really know who I was---- But you mustn't be dull." I drew her attention to a sailing ship in the distance. "Now, that," I said, "is what I call a really good ship." "Barque!" "Barque, I mean. It must be--" "About five thousand tons" "Burthen. Exactly. By the way, I never know what that really means unless it means that, if you wanted to lift it, you couldn't." "Try displacement." "Thank you. It was off just such an one that I was cast away two years ago come Michaelmas. We were just standing by in the offing, when she sterruck with a grinding crash. There was a matter of seventy souls aboard, and I shall never forget the look on the captain's face as the ship's cat stole his place in the stern-sheets of the jolly-boat. I was thrown up on a desert island, I was. You ought to have seen me milking the goats on Spyglass Hill." "Did you wear a goatskin cap?" "Did I not! And two muskets. But my snake belt was the great thing. You see--" "Which reminds me--I think it's about time I got civilized again." "Not yet, Mermaid," I pleaded; "the sun is yet high." "You don't suppose I'm going to stay here all day, do you? We're not on your precious island now." "I only wish we were. I had my loaf of bread and jug of wine all right, but the one thing I wanted, Mermaid, was--" "A woman to keep him company without thinking he wanted to kiss her, or marry her, or something. Whatever's that?" I jumped to my feet and looked towards where she was pointing. "It looks rather like--forgive me--a chemise." "Good Heavens!" Before I had time to move, she rushed into the surf and secured the floating garment, made another dart at something else, and was knocked down by a roller. I had her on her feet in a moment, but she dashed the water out of her eves and looked wildly to and fro over the sea. "What is it, Mermaid?" She tried to stamp her foot; but the four inches of water in which she was standing were against her. "Can't you see, idiot? This is mine--this chemise--so's this shoe. The tide's come up into my cave while I've been making a fool of myself talking to you, and all my things are gone. There's the other shoe." "All right--I'll get it." I got it, and one stocking, but though I swam about till I was tired, and even climbed on to the rock, now almost submerged, to which we had raced, I could see nothing else. I returned temporarily exhausted to the cove. She waded out to meet me. "Tell me exactly where your cave is," I said, as I handed her the flotsam. She showed me, and, after a moment or two's rest, I swam out and round to the mouth, only to find the water too high to enter. I did try, but a wave lifted me up to the roof, and I only saved a broken head at the expense of a nasty cut on the back of my hand.