VIII 

 A MINIATURE TROUT STREAM 



PEBBLEVILLE-ON-SEA (as the prospectus put- 

 ting it before the notice of all who like a 

 really quiet seaside resort had said) was 

 certainly neither Brighton nor Margate. 

 No bathing-machines broke the continuity 

 of coast ; no gentlemen of temporary colour 

 mocked the moaning ocean with comic 

 songs ; no Paris confections were ridiculously 

 outlined against the infinite. Pebbleville 

 was small and scattered ; its houses were 

 but land-marks, so to speak, dotted about as 

 though each represented the corner of a 

 street that should have being when Pebble- 

 ville had become a Brighton or a Margate. 

 Pebbleville was inexpensive, and its few 

 visitors were elderly and given to medita- 

 tion ; they neither romped nor paddled, but 



strolled gently along the cliff or sat gently 



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