'I think I shall stay here a bit,' I said.
'I can have lunch any time.
It's cold.
It doesn't matter.
I want to see what the diver's going to do.'
Somehow I could not face Frank just at the moment.
I wanted to be alone, or with someone I did not know, like the coastguard.
'You won't see anything,' said Frank; 'there won't be anything to see.
Why not come back and have some lunch with me?'
'No,' I said. 'No, really…"
'Oh, well,' said Frank, 'you know where to find me if you do want me.
I shall be at the office all the afternoon.'
'All right,' I said.
He nodded to the coastguard and went off down the cliff towards the cove.
I wondered if I had offended him.
I could not help it.
All these things would be settled some day, one day.
So much seemed to have happened since I spoke to him on the telephone, and I did not want to think about anything any more.
I just wanted to sit there on the cliff and stare at the ship.
'He's a good sort, Mr Crawley,' said the coastguard.
'Yes,' I said.
'He'd give his right hand for Mr de Winter too,' he said.
'Yes, I think he would,' I said.
The small boy was still hopping around on the grass in front of us.
'When's the diver coming up again?' he said.
'Not yet, sonny,' said the coastguard.
A woman in a pink striped frock and a hairnet came across the grass towards us.
'Charlie? Charlie? Where are you?' she called.
'Here's your mother coming to give you what-for,' said the coastguard.
'I've seen the diver, Mum,' shouted the boy.
The woman nodded to us and smiled.
She did not know me.
She was a holiday-maker from Kerrith.
'The excitement all seems to be over doesn't it?' she said; 'they are saying down on the cliff there the ship will be there for days.'
'They're waiting for the diver's report,' said the coastguard.
'I don't know how they get them to go down under the water like that,' said the woman; 'they ought to pay them well.'
'They do that,' said the coastguard.
'I want to be a diver, Mum,' said the small boy.
'You must ask your Daddy, dear,' said the woman, laughing at us.
'It's a lovely spot up here, isn't it?' she said to me.
'We brought a picnic lunch, never thinking it would turn foggy and we'd have a wreck into the bargain.
We were just thinking of going back to Kerrith when the rockets went off under our noses, it seemed.
I nearly jumped out of my skin.
"Why, whatever's that?" I said to my husband.
"That's a distress signal," he said; "let's stop and see the fun."
There's no dragging him away; he's as bad as my little boy.
I don't see anything in it myself.'
'No, there's not much to see now,' said the coastguard.
"Those are nice-looking woods over there; I suppose they're private,' said the woman.
The coastguard coughed awkwardly, and glanced at me.