Page:Robert Barr - Lord Stranleigh Philanthropist.djvu/188

 "Certainly, if Morgan had been there."

"Why, a person would go melancholy mad in a week!"

"Oh, there's more going on than you think! You see, it is nearly the southernmost point of England, and the shipping of the world passes it. Every now and then you may witness a flotilla of torpedo-boat destroyers, one black boat following another round the Start, making for Plymouth. Then there are real battleships and cruisers, and nearly every day huge passenger boats, American liners, all the German leviathans, and the monsters of the White Star Line. Brilliantly lighted up at night, these marine giants always remind me of Kipling's simile: 'Like a grand hotel.' Even on a calm day the sea is perpetually quarrelling with the pointed rocks, the most admirable object-lesson of persistence I know, and in a storm, when it comes to blows, it is the most majestic sight I have ever seen."

Blake made a grimace, and shuddered.

"That little spit of sand down by the mill is the finest possible early morning bathing-place," continued Stranleigh, "with the exciting advantage of strong currents. I am never sure, when I plunge in there, but that I may be compelled to land at