“Mariet, do you hear?  Anna is asking you whether you have seen Dan to-day.”

“Yes, I think I have.  I don’t remember.  He is in his room.  He does not like to leave his room when father goes fishing.”

“Dan is fond of the city priests.  He cannot get used to the idea of a priest who goes fishing, like an ordinary fisherman, and who goes to sea with our husbands.”

“He is simply afraid of the sea.”

“You may say what you like, but I believe we have the very best priest in the world.”

“That’s true.  I fear him, but I love him as a father.”

“May God forgive me, but I would have been proud and always happy, if I were his adopted daughter.  Do you hear, Mariet?”

The women laugh softly and tenderly.

“Do you hear, Mariet?”

“I do.  But aren’t you tired of always laughing at the same thing?  Yes, I am his daughter—­Is it so funny that you will laugh all your life at it?”

The women commence to justify themselves confusedly.

“But he laughs at it himself.”

“The abbot is fond of jesting.  He says so comically:  ’My adopted daughter,’ and then he strikes himself with his fist and shouts:  ’She’s my real daughter, not my adopted daughter.  She’s my real daughter.’”

“I have never known my mother, but this laughter would have been unpleasant to her.  I feel it,” says Mariet.

The women grow silent.  The breakers strike against the shore dully with the regularity of a great pendulum.  The unknown city, wrapped with fire and smoke, is still being destroyed in the sky; yet it does not fall down completely; and the sea is waiting.  Mariet lifts her lowered head.

“What were you going to say, Mariet?”

“Didn’t he pass here?” asks Mariet in a low voice.

Another woman answers timidly: 

“Hush!  Why do you speak of him?  I fear him.  No, he did not pass this way.”

“He did.  I saw from the window that he passed by.”

“You are mistaken; it was some one else.”

“Who else could that be?  Is it possible to make a mistake, if you have once seen him walk?  No one walks as he does.”

“Naval officers, Englishmen, walk like that.”

“No.  Haven’t I seen naval officers in the city?  They walk firmly, but openly; even a girl could trust them.”

“Oh, look out!”

Frightened and cautious laughter.

“No, don’t laugh.  He walks without looking at the ground; he puts his feet down as if the ground itself must take them cautiously and place them.”

“But if there’s a stone on the road?  We have many stones here.”

“He does not bend down, nor does he hide his head when a strong wind blows.”

“Of course not.  Of course not.  He does not hide his head.”

“Is it true that he is handsome?  Who has seen him at close range?”