However, all this expenditure of skill proved to be of no avail. She
could not move a fin; nor had Robert any better luck, when, they having
come to a shallow reach, she allowed the old man, who was encased in
waders, to get into the water and fish along the opposite bank. When he
came ashore again, his young mistress said,
"Dame Fortune hasn't forgiven us for letting that first one go." And old
Robert, who had probably never heard of Dame Fortune (or may have
considered the phrase a polite and young-lady-like form of swearing),
merely made answer,
"Ay, Miss Honnor, we'll go and try the Small Pool, now."
The Small Pool lies between the Long Pool and the Rock Pool; it is a
circular, deep, black hole, in which the waters collect before dashing
and roaring down between the great gray boulders; and to fish it you
must get out on certain knife-like ledges that seem to offer anything
but a secure foothold. However, Miss Honnor did not think twice about
it; and, indeed, as she made her way out on those narrow slips of rock,
Lionel perceived that her boots, which were laced in front like men's
boots, if they were small enough as regarded that portion covering the
foot, were provided with most sensibly wide soles, which, again were
studded with nails.
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