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THE WINDOW 89

it's not our fault. They had not wanted this horridnuisance to happen. All the same it irritated Andrewthat Nancy should be a woman, and Nancy thatAndrew should be a man and they tied their shoesvery neatly and drew the bows rather tight.

It was not until they had climbed right up on tothe top of the cliff again that Minta cried out thatshe had lost her grandmother's brooch—her grand-mother’s brooch, the sole ornament she possessed—aweeping willow, it was (they must remember it) setin pearls. They must have seen it, she said, with thetears running down her cheeks, the brooch which hergrandmother had fastened her cap with till the lastday of her life. Now she had lost it. She wouldrather have lost anything than that! She would goback and look for it. They all went back. Theypoked and peered and looked. They kept theirheads very low, and said things shortly and gruffly.Paul Rayley searched like a madman all about therock where they had been sitting. All this potherabout a brooch really didn’t do at all, Andrewthought, as Paul told him to make a ‘thoroughsearch between this point and that.’ The tide wascoming in fast. The sea would cover the place wherethey had sat in a minute. There was not a ghost ofa chance of their finding it now. ‘We shall be cutoff!' Minta shrieked, suddenly terrified. As if therewere any danger of that! It was the same as thebulls all over again—she had no control over heremotions, Andrew thought. Women hadn’t. Thewretched Paul had to pacify her. The men (Andrewand Paul at once became manly, and different fromusual) took counsel briefly and decided that they