under no very stern discipline.

"Not on long voyages, such as going to Paris or the Morbihan," replied
the woman; "but he is often away for half-a-day or so, selling his fish
in Morlaix and doing commissions for their little auberge. And then,"
she added with a condoning smile, "of course he sometimes met with a
camarade who enticed him to drink a glass too much, though that was a
rare occurrence. Mais que voulez-vous? Human nature was weak; and for
her part she really thought that men were weaker than women. Certainly
they were more self-indulgent."

"It is because they have more temptations," said H.C., pleading the
cause of his own sex. "Women had more to do with home and the
pot-au-feu."

At this moment our hostess's pot-au-feu began to boil over, and she
darted across the room, took it off the fire and returned, laughing.

"Even the pot-au-feu we cannot always manage, it seems," she remarked;
"and so there are faults on all sides. Sometimes on a Sunday her husband
went and spent the day at Roscoff, where he had a cousin living. Did
messieurs know Roscoff--a deadly-lively little place, with a quaint
harbour, where there was a chapel to commemorate the landing of Marie
Stuart?"

We said we did not know it, but purposed visiting it on the morrow if
the skies ceased their deluge.

"Why does your husband not turn fisherman," we asked, "instead of buying
his fish from others, and so selling it second-hand at a smaller profit?
You are so close to the sea."

"Dame," replied the woman, "it is not his trade. He was never brought up
to the sea; always hated it. And for the rest," she added, with a
shudder, "Heaven forbid that he should turn fisherman! She had once
dreamed three times running that he was drowned at sea; and she had
feared the water ever since. She had almost made her husband take a vow
that he would never go upon the sea. He generally took part once a year
in the regatta; of course, there could be no danger; but she trembled
the whole time until she saw him returning safe and sound. No, no!
Chacun a son metier."

Here we interrupted the flow of eloquence, though the woman was really
interesting with her straightforward confidences, her rather picturesque
patois, and her numerous gestures.

We went to the door and surveyed the elements. The skies were cowering;
the rain came down like a revengeful cataract; the road was flooded, and
the water was beginning to flood the room. In front the river look