er mind,
as she looked upon the night falling over Paimpol. If Yann had had no
idea of marriage, why had he told her all the items of his existence, to
which she had listened, as only an engaged sweetheart would have done;
he did not seem a commonplace young man, prone to babbling his business
to everybody who came along.

"The occupation is pretty good, nevertheless," he said, "and I shall
never change my career. Some years we make eight hundred francs, and
others twelve hundred, which I get upon my return, and hand over to the
old lady."

"To your mother, Monsieur Yann, eh?"

"Yes, every penny of it, always. It's the custom with us Icelanders,
Mademoiselle Gaud." He spoke of this as a quite ordinary and natural
course.

"Perhaps you'll hardly believe it, but I scarcely ever have any
pocket-money. Of a Sunday mother gives me a little when I come into
Paimpol. And so it goes all the time. Why, look 'ee here, this year my
father had these clothes made for me, without which treat I never could
have come to the wedding; certain sure, for I never should have dared
offer you my arm in my old duds of last year."

For one like her, accustomed to seeing Parisians, Yann's habiliments
were, perhaps, not very stylish; a short jacket open over the
old-fashioned waistcoat; but the build of their wearer was
irreproachably handsome, so that he had a noble look withal.

Smiling, he looked at her straight in the depths of her eyes each time
he spoke to her, so as to divine her opinion. And how good and honest
was his look, as he told her all these short-comings, so that she might
well understand that he was not rich!

And she smiled also, as she gazed at him full in the face; answering
seldom, but listening with her whole soul, more and more astonished and
more and more drawn towards him. What a mixture of untamed roughness
and caressing childishness he was! His earnest voice, short and blunt
towards others, became softer and more and more tender as he spoke
to her; and for her alone he knew how to make it trill with extreme
sweetness, like the music of a stringed instrument with the mute upon
it.

What a singular and astonishing fact it was to see this man of brawn,
with his free air and forbidding aspect, always treated by his family
like a child, and deeming it quite natural; having travelled over all
the earth, met with all sorts of adventures, incurred all dangers, and
yet showing the same respectful and absolute obedien