"We shan't get shells while we're having tea, of course! You can look for
some more afterwards if you haven't enough."
"Oh, surely, we have heaps and heaps! And simply exquisite ones! These
tiny yellow babies are just perfect. I like them better than the big
grandfathers," exulted Mavis.
Bevis made a polite but leisurely host. He insisted on boiling some more
water, which was not really wanted, but which took a long time, and he
spun out his own tea interminably.
"It's so jolly here under the rocks!" he declared. "I like the _dolce
far niente_--makes one think of lotus-eaters and all the rest of it.
Shall I help you sort your shells? You could wash them in the tea-cups.
It's no use carrying home surplus sand. There's some water left in the
kettle."
On one pretext or another he kept them dawdling under the rocks, till
Mrs. Tremayne at last rose up and declared they really must be starting
back for the cove.
"We shall be having the tide coming in if we don't mind," she said.
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