He has never been at pains to
visit us since.
"But meanwhile Lucien and Jeanne had no room to marry and set up
house. It was a heavy time for them. They had some talk together of
crossing over and finding a house on the mainland; but it came to
nothing. The parents on both sides would not hear of it, and in
truth Jeanne would have found it lonely on the mainland, away from
her friends and kin; for Lucien, you see, must in any case spend half
his time on the lighthouse on Ile Ouessant. So many weeks on duty,
so many weeks ashore--thus it works, and even so the loneliness wears
them; though our Bretons, being silent men by nature, endure it
better than the rest.
"Lucien and Jeanne must wait--wait for somebody to die. In plain
words it came to that. Ah, monsieur! I have heard well-to-do folk
talk of our poor as unfeeling. That is an untruth. But suppose it
were true. Where would the blame lie in such a story as this?
Like will to like, and young blood is hot. . . . Lucien and Jeanne,
however, were always well conducted. . . . Yes, yes, my story?
Six months passed, and then came word that our rich artist desired to
sell his little _pied-a-terre_; but he demanded the price he had
given for it, and, moreover, what he called compensation for the
buildings he had added.
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