to them, excepting when Roland was by, to avoid his questioning.

As soon as he received the letter announcing his appointment he showed
it at once to his family. His father, who was prone to rejoicing over
everything, clapped his hands. Jean spoke seriously, though his heart
was full of gladness: "I congratulate you with all my heart, for I
know there were several other candidates. You certainly owe it to your
professors' letters."

His mother bent her head and murmured:

"I am very glad you have been successful."

After breakfast he went to the Company's offices to obtain information
on various particulars, and he asked the name of the doctor on board
the _Picardie_, which was to sail next day, to inquire of him as to
the details of his new life and any details he might think useful.

Doctor Pirette having gone on board, Pierre went to the ship, where he
was received in a little stateroom by a young man with a fair beard,
not unlike his brother. They talked together a long time.

In the hollow depths of the huge ship they could hear a confused and
continuous commotion; the noise of bales and cases pitched down into
the hold mingling with footsteps, voices, the creaking of the
machinery lowering the freight, the boatswain's whistle, and the
clatter of chains dragged or wound onto capstans by the snorting and
panting engine which sent a slight vibration from end to end of the
great vessel.

But when Pierre had left his colleague and found himself in the street
once more, a new form of melancholy came down on him, enveloping him
like the fogs which roll over the sea, coming up from the ends of the
world and holding in their intangible density something mysteriously
impure, as it were the pestilential breath of a far-away, unhealthy
land.

In his hours of greatest suffering he had never felt himself so sunk
in a foul pit of misery. It was as though he had given the last
wrench; there was no fiber of attachment left. In tearing up the
roots of every affection he had not hitherto had the distressful
feeling which now came over him, like that of a lost dog. It was no
longer a torturing mortal pain, but the frenzy of a forlorn and
homeless animal, the physical anguish of a vagabond creature without a
roof for shelter, lashed by the rain, the wind, the storm, all the
brutal forces of the universe. As he set foot on the vessel, as he
went into the cabin rocked by the waves, the very flesh of the man,
who had always s