hese wretches scattered along the road, with
accordions and hurdy-gurdies; they held out their hands and hats to
receive the alms that Yann threw to them with his own noble look and
Gaud with her beautiful queenly smile. Some of these poor waifs
were very old and wore gray locks on heads that had never held much;
crouching in the hollows of the roadside, they were of the same colour
as the earth from which they seemed to have sprung, but so unformed as
soon to be returned without ever having had any human thoughts. Their
wandering glances were as indecipherable as the mystery of their
abortive and useless existences. Without comprehending, they looked
at the merrymakers' line pass by. It went on beyond Pors-Even and the
Gaoses' home. They meant to follow the ancient bridal tradition of
Ploubazlanec and go to the chapel of La Trinite, which is situated at
the very end of the Breton country.

At the foot of the outermost cliff, it rests on a threshold of low-lying
rocks close to the water, and seems almost to belong to the sea already.
A narrow goat's path leads down to it through masses of granite.

The wedding party spread over the incline of the forsaken cape head;
and among the rocks and stones, happy words were lost in the roar of the
wind and the surf.

It was useless to try and reach the chapel; in this boisterous weather
the path was not safe, the sea came too close with its high rollers.
Its white-crested spouts sprang up in the air, so as to break over
everything in a ceaseless shower.

Yann, who had advanced the farthest with Gaud on his arm, was the first
to retreat before the spray. Behind, his wedding party had remained
strewn about the rocks, in a semicircle; it seemed as if he had come
to present his wife to the sea, which received her with scowling,
ill-boding aspect.

Turning round, he caught sight of the violinist perched on a gray rock,
trying vainly to play his dance tunes between gusts of wind.

"Put up your music, my lad," said Yann; "old Neptune is playing us a
livelier tune than yours."

A heavily beating shower, which had threatened since morning, began to
fall. There was a mad rush then, accompanied by outcries and laughter,
to climb up the bluff and take refuge at the Gaoses'.

CHAPTER VII--THE DISCORDANT NOTE

The wedding breakfast was given at Yann's parents', because Gaud's
home was so poor. It took place upstairs in the great new room.
Five-and-twenty guests sat down round th