CHAPTER IV
HIS RELUCTANCE
"Me get married?" said Yann to his parents that same evening. "Me get
married? Good heavens, why should I? Shall I ever be as happy as here
with ye? no troubles, no tiffs with any one, and warm soup ready for
me every night when I come home from sea. Oh! I quite understand that
you mean the girl that came here to-day, but what's such a rich girl
to do with us? 'Tisn't clear to my thinking. And it'll be neither her,
nor any other. It's all settled, I won't marry--it ain't to my
liking."
The two old Gaoses looked at one another in silence, deeply
disappointed, for, after having talked it over together, they were
pretty well sure that this young lady would not refuse their handsome
Yann. But they did not try to argue, knowing how useless that would
be. The mother lowered her head, and said no more; she respected the
will of her son, her eldest born, who was all but the head of the
family; although he was always tender and gentle with her, more
obedient than a child in the petty things of life, he long ago had
been her absolute master for the great ones, eluding all restraint
with a quiet though savage independence. He never sat up late, being
in the habit, like other fishermen, of rising before break of day. And
after supper at eight o'clock, he had given another satisfactory look
to his baskets and new nets from Loguivy, and began to undress--calm
to all appearances, and went up to sleep in the pink-curtained bed,
which he shared with his little brother Laumec.
