The Mass ended, they walked back again to the
house that had sheltered them for years, and they
walked arm in arm. Goundran was rather unusually
flushed and Elise very pale; in all other respects,
however, they seemed like an old married couple —
so collected, so unhurried, and Elise's grey dress so
staid with its black velvet belt and white collar.
But that night the lover and lord of the sea became
lover and lord of a mortal woman. And he found it
unexpectedly gracious to rest with his head on her
firm young bosom; to be one with her ardent humanity;
for when all was said and done Goundran was human.
§4
Jouse was well pleased with Goundran's marriage.
It seemed to him wonderfully right and natural that
so comely, and stalwart and honest a fellow should
mate and, God willing, produce many children.
'Mais oui/ he remarked to Marie the next evening
as he fondled a hand grown rough in his service;
'mais oui, marriage sometimes brings sorrow, Marioun
— sorrow and anxiety, that I admit;' and he glanced
across at le tout petit Loup, 'but it also brings comfort
along with the sorrow, for a burden that is shared
between two loving hearts only serves to bind them
more closely together. I rejoice that Goundran has
wedded Elise, and may she make him as brave a wife
as my Marioun has made her Jouse!3
So saying he pressed his lips to her palm, a thing
that he had not done for years, not indeed since the
days of their earliest mating. And she blushed,
recalling those more ardent days, while their eyes
as they met became heavy with memories, for this
wedding had made them think of their own, so that
now many long-forgotten emotions looked out from
their faithful, toil-strained eyes — curiosity, reverence,
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