For this and other reasons she passed the night in sore perplexity, and
did not sleep till morning; and so she overslept her usual time. However,
when she was up, she determined to find her own breakfast; she felt it
would not do to be too dependent, and on a person of uncertain humor;
such for the moment she chose to pretend to herself was Hazel.
Accordingly she went down to the sea to look for crayfish. She found
abundance. There they lay in the water; you had but to stoop and pick
them up.
But alas! they were black, lively, viperish; she went with no great
relish for the task to take one up; it wriggled maliciously; she dropped
it, and at that very moment, by a curious coincidence, remembered she was
sick and tired of crayfish; she would breakfast on fruits. She crossed
the sand, took off her shoes, and paddled through the river, and; having
put on her shoes again, was about to walk up through some rank grass to
the big wood, when she heard a voice behind her, and it was Mr. Hazel.
She bit her lip (it was broad daylight now), and prepared quietly to
discourage this excessive assiduity. He came up to her panting a little,
and, taking off his hat, said, with marked respect, "I beg your pardon,
Miss Rolleston, but I know you hate reptiles; now there are a few snakes
in that long grass; not poisonous ones.
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