floating on the top of the waves

You come out on to a cliff and look right down into the sea. 　　The rocks are all red; you can see them through the water. 　　The other day I saw a sight that fairly took my breath away--about twenty jelly-fish, semi-transparent, pink, with long streamers,floating on the top of the waves.""Sure they weren't mermaids?" said Hirst. "It's much too hotto climb uphill." He looked at Helen, who showed no signs of moving. 　　"Yes, it's too hot," Helen decided. 　　There was a short silence. 　　"I'd like to come," said Rachel. 　　"But she might have said that anyhow," Helen thought to herselfas Hewet and Rachel went away together, and Helen was left alonewith St. John, to St. John's obvious satisfaction. 　　He may have been satisfied, but his usual difficulty in decidingthat one subject was more deserving of notice than another preventedhim from speaking for some time. He sat staring intently at the headof a dead match, while Helen considered--so it seemed from the expressionof her eyes--something not closely connected with the present moment. 　　At last St. John exclaimed, "Damn! Damn everything! Damn everybody!"he added. "At Cambridge there are people to talk to.""At Cambridge there are people to talk to," Helen echoed him,rhythmically and absent-mindedly. Then she woke up. "By the way,have you settled what you're going to do--is it to be Cambridge orthe Bar?"He pursed his lips, but made no immediate answer, for Helen wasstill slightly inattentive. She had been thinking about Racheland which of the two young men she was likely to fall in love with,and now sitting opposite to Hirst she thought, "He's ugly. 　　It's a pity they're so ugly."She did not include Hewet in this criticism; she was thinkingof the clever, honest, interesting young men she knew, of whomHirst was a good example, and wondering whether it was necessarythat thought and scholarship should thus maltreat their bodies,and should thus elevate their minds to a very high tower from whichthe human race appeared to them like rats and mice squirming on the flat.