The Sea Lady

The intricately narrated story involves a mermaid who comes ashore on the southern coast of England in 1899. Feigning a desire to become part of genteel society, the mermaid's real design is to seduce Chatteris, a man she saw 'some years ago' in 'the South Seas—near Tonga,' who has taken her fancy. This she reveals in a conversation with the narrator's second cousin Melville, a friend of the famil...