The Beach of Dreams

lars, except one. The owner of the Gasto

s great grandfather the title of prince, and estates in Thuringia gave him money enough to do what he pleased, an unfortunate marriage gave

tering things of life, all these betray one, but the sea, though

one of those thorough souls for whom Life and an Object are synonymous terms. In other words he would never have made a yach

he Musée Océanographique of Monaco his inspi

entrifugal bilge pumps to the last thing in sea valves. She was reckoned by those who knew her the finest sea-going yacht in the world and she was certainly the chef-d'?uvre of Lafiette, Viguard's chief des

little encumbrance save a deck-house forward gi

room. Here were stowed the dredges and buoys and all the gear belonging to them, trawl nets and deep sea traps, cable and spare

one might say a fisherman, he was always Monsieur le Prince and though his hobby lay in the depths of the sea his intellect did not lie there too. Politics, Literature and Art travelled with him as mind companions, whilst in the flesh he

d here, panels by Chardin painted for Madame de Pompadour occupied the walls, the main lamp, a flying dragon by Benvenuto Cellini, clutching in its claws a globe of fire, had, for satellites, four torch bearers of b

tross and the after cabins of the Gaston, nothing, except, maybe, the contrast between a

sense of isolation and broken the monotony. The four guests of the Prince were: Madame la Comtesse de Warens, an old lady with a passion for travel, a free thinker, whose mother was a friend of Voltaire in her youth and whose father had been a member of the Jacobin club; she was eighty-four years of age, declared herself indestructible by time, and her one last ambition to be a burial at sea. She was also a Socialistic-Anarchist, possessed an income of some forty thousand pounds a year derived from

t dilution, yet strangely enough with money, for the Bromsarts, without marrying into trade, had adapted themselves to the new times so cleverly that Eugène de Bromsart the last of his race had retired from life l

e opinions of her aunt seemed to her a sort of disreputable madness bred on hypocrisy. Cléo looked on the lower classes just as she looked on animals, beings with

r the sake of his health and to absorb the colours of the ocean. The vision of the Albatross with towering canvas breasting the blue-green seas in an atmosp

the weather had moderated and that there was a ship in sight, and there, away across the tumbling seas, the Albatros

was saying, "how long do you propose s

ky Islands and I shall put in for a day on the mainland where you can go ashore if you

is

ough this evening, or rather you heard it, no doub

"it brewed one of those things, only

ossi

hy

s can fight

ny natives i

guins and

hree-master we saw just now, wou

that would keep north of the Crozets. Probably she was driven down by that big storm we had a

hat land shall we see ne

e, "and after that the Sunda Islands and b

t up to this, and she spoke now with eyes fixed far away as if

go there now

ay?" asked

and leave this place

t w

out Kerguelen, or perhaps it was the sight of that big s

es

ip frigh

ou to-night? You who are never frightened. I'm not easily frightened, but I adm

gs have no power over me, an ugly face can frighten me more than the threat of a blow. It is a question of psy

adame de Warens, "what can

r away from it and from here. Then, Monsieur le Prince, with his story

said the Prince smiling as he helped himsel

a question of my wishes a

o boat, Captain Lepine is on the bridge, he has only to go into his chart house, set his course for New Amsterdam, and a

soundings?

r time or some other man, se

ed at the saloon door,

me aft," said the Prince.

se altered for me. I am quite clear upon that point. What I said was foolish and it

glimpse something of the iron will that la

the quarter-master. "You

had spoken of changing our course I doubt if your quarter-master would have been called, Monsie

things of secondary importance and the mind as everything. Now I am firmly convinced that the mind of man, so far from being a thing apart from the objects that form its environment, is, in fact, nothing else but a mirror or focus upon which objects registe

f your own, Epinard

it may be bad or goo

s composed entirely of envi

ince, at the beginning of the world, living tissue was formed. He is the sunset he saw a million years ago, the water he swam in when he was a fish, the knight in armour he fought with when he was an a

Prince, "for certainly the theory is less mad than some of t

to do with the ship?"

f yours and mine, a logical and definite part of our minds; now, mark me, there was also the sunset and the storm clouds, those objects also became part of the mind of Mademoiselle d

time, and I felt just now that it was following me. It was to escape from that absu

will has conquered the Phantom. Let

Bromsart. "It seems to me tha

speed. Kerguelen is before us, or rather on our starboard bow, and daybreak will, no doubt, give us a

the works of Anatole France, and other absorbing subjects. One might have fancied oneself in Paris but for the vibra

oking-room alone with her host, Madame de Warens havin

d from her cabin and the Prince was glancing at the pages of

earnest,

ed, glancing u

Nothing would please me more than to

, "all the same I am glad I did not spoil yo

ow

die than run a

feared

a premonition of danger. I did not say so at

her fragility and beauty with the something unbendabl

going to speak to you for the last few days. I will say what

m, meeting his eyes

she, "it is

hy

y great regar

not lo

work calmly as though the conversa

a very great deal of the world and I know for a fact that happiness in marriage has little to do with what the poets call love and everything to do with companio

n to be rude, but this world of ours, this world of society that holds us all, is there anything real about it, since nearly everything in it is

ion. How else wo

ove does not count in the long run, and you are right, perhaps, as far as what you call the World is concerned. I only repeat that the thing you call the World is

y certain of a thing which, of al

k by in

e and how are we to alter it? We are all like passengers in a train travelling to heaven knows where; the seats are well cushioned and the dining-car leaves nothing to be de

se not,"

lying on the table. He had received his answer and he knew ins

ere was heavy and clammy and not consistent. It was as though the low lying clouds dipped here and there to touch the sea. Every

pale hint of the bridge canvas and a trace of spars and funnel

ed over at the tumble and sud of the water lit

s disastrous first experience never to marry again. He had attempted to break his oath. Was he in love with her? He could scarcely answe

its shams? Was she right in her statement that love was a bond between two spirits, a bond unbreakable by death? That o

in the mind of a young girl and to h

. Captain Lepine was in the chart room, the first officer was on

ed down," sai

ficer, "we are getting close to land.

u think of

had nothing behind it, and were it not for these fog patches I wou

vile place, by all accounts, a

door of the chart

in red velvet ran along one side of it and on the couch with one leg up and a pipe in his mouth the captain was restin

o move, sat down and lit a ci

vision between the sailor and the rest of the world could not have been more sharply marked. Tha

or so on all sorts of subje

, "It has been the toss up of a sou that we ar

is that,

came to her that some misfortune might happen to us off Kerguelen and, as you know, I am always a

er our

msart altered her mind. She r

oung lady that idea?

p we sighted

hree-m

omething about it

n idea-and what w

ies and superstitions, you know that, Lepine,

here are bad and good men, of that I am sure. Perhaps that three-master was a bad ship." Lepine laughed

rt house and came

ed and the night was pitch black. On the bridge the Gas

ound. Suddenly, and as if evolved by magic from the blackness, the vague spectre of a vast ship shewed up ahead on the port bow mak

eing Destruction and judging that by a bold stroke it might be out-leaped, h