On opening his eyes it was to see her in the full glory of her beauty, with the flush of health upon her cheeks, with rosy fingers, her skin cool, soft and perfumed, her eyes bright, her lips smiling, and her magnificent hair in order.

But from that moment onward she was always about him, nestling close to him when they were alone, her eyes on his when they walked arm in arm through the streets.
In the morning she bathed in the sea while Wilhelm sat on the shore and watched her.

She swam like a fish; he could not swim at all.

She pledged her word to make him equally proficient in a few days, but her superiority made him feel small, and he would not accept her offer.

For twenty minutes she practiced her art in the water, lay on her back and on her side, turned somersaults, dived, trod the water and finally came out, like Venus newly risen from the waves, and joined Wilhelm, who was waiting for her with her bath-mantle.