I crossed the ground she had traversed , noting every feature surrounding it , the curving wheel-track , the thin prickly sand-herbage , the wave - mounds , the sparse wet shells and pebbles , the gleaming flatness of the water , and the vast horizon-boundary of pale flat land level with shore , looking like a dead sister of the sea . By a careful examination of my watch and the sun 's altitude , I was able to calculate what would , in all likelihood , have been his height above yonder waves when her chair was turned toward the city , at a point I reached in the track . But of the matter then simultaneously occupying my mind , to recover which was the second supreme task I proposed to myself-of what . I also was thinking upon the stroke of five o'clock , I could recollect nothing . I could not even recollect whether I happened to be looking on sun and waves when she must have had them full and glorious in her face . With the heartiest consent I could give , and a blank cheque , my father returned to England to hire forthwith a commodious yacht , fitted and manned . Before going he discoursed of prudence in our expenditure ; though not for the sake of the mere money in hand , which was a trifle , barely more than the half of my future income ; but that the squire , should he by and by bethink him of inspecting our affairs , might perceive we were not spendthrifts .
I crossed the ground she had traversed , noting every feature surrounding it , the curving wheel - track , the thin prickly sand - herbage , the wave - mounds , the sparse wet shells and pebbles , the gleaming flatness of the water , and the vast horizon - boundary of pale flat land level with shore , looking like a dead sister of the sea . By a careful examination of my watch and the sun 's altitude , I was able to calculate what would , in all likelihood , have been his height above yonder waves when her chair was turned toward the city , at a point I reached in the track . But of the matter then simultaneously occupying my mind , to recover which was the second supreme task I proposed to myself - of what . I also was thinking upon the stroke of five o'clock , I could recollect nothing . I could not even recollect whether I happened to be looking on sun and waves when she must have had them full and glorious in her face . With the heartiest consent I could give , and a blank cheque , my father returned to England to hire forthwith a commodious yacht , fitted and manned . Before going he discoursed of prudence in our expenditure ; though not for the sake of the mere money in hand , which was a trifle , barely more than the half of my future income ; but that the squire , should he by and by bethink him of inspecting our affairs , might perceive we were not spendthrifts .