n, watching the night-wrapped sea covered
with ships; the living eyes of the hospitable shore saying, merely by
the mechanical and regular movement of their eye-lids: "I am here. I am
Trouville; I am Honfleur; I am the Andemer River." And high above
all the rest, so high that from this distance it might be taken for a
planet, the airy lighthouse of Etouville showed the way to Rouen across
the sand banks at the mouth of the great river.

Out on the deep water, the limitless water, darker than the sky, stars
seemed to have fallen here and there. They twinkled in the night haze,
small, close to shore or far away--white, red, and green, too. Most of
them were motionless; some, however, seemed to be scudding onward. These
were the lights of the ships at anchor or moving about in search of
moorings.

Just at this moment the moon rose behind the town; and it, too, looked
like some huge, divine pharos lighted up in the heavens to guide the
countless fleet of stars in the sky. Pierre murmured, almost speaking
aloud: "Look at that! And we let our bile rise for twopence!"

On a sudden, close to him, in the wide, dark ditch between the two
piers, a shadow stole up, a large shadow of fantastic shape. Leaning
over the granite parapet, he saw that a fishing-boat had glided in,
without the sound of a voice or the splash of a ripple, or the plunge
of an oar, softly borne in by its broad, tawny sail spread to the breeze
from the open sea.

He thought to himself: "If one could but live on board that boat, what
peace it would be--perhaps!"

And then again a few steps beyond, he saw a man sitting at the very end
of the breakwater.

A dreamer, a lover, a sage--a happy or a desperate man? Who was it? He
went forward, curious to see the face of this lonely individual, and he
recognised his brother.

"What, is it you, Jean?"

"Pierre! You! What has brought you here?"

"I came out to get some fresh air. And you?"

Jean began to laugh.

"I too came out for fresh air." And Pierre sat down by his brother's
side.

"Lovely--isn't it?"

"Oh, yes, lovely."

He understood from the tone of voice that Jean had not looked at
anything. He went on:

"For my part, whenever I come here I am seized with a wild desire to be
off with all those boats, to the north or the south. Only to think that
all those little sparks out there have just come from the uttermost ends
of the earth, from the lands of great flowers and beautiful olive or
copper