PART IV
YANN'S FIRST WEDDING
CHAPTER I
THE COURTING BY THE SEA
All sweethearts like to sit on the bench at their cottage door, when
night falls.
Yann and Gaud did that likewise. Every evening they sat out together
before the Moans' cottage, on the old granite seat, and talked love.
Others have the spring-time, the soft shadow of the trees, balmy
evenings, and flowering rosebushes; they had only the February
twilight, which fell over the sea-beaten land, strewn with eel-grass
and stones. There was no branch of verdure above their heads or around
them; nothing but the immense sky, over which passed the slowly
wandering mists. And their flowers were brown sea-weeds, drawn up from
the beach by the fishers, as they dragged their nets along.
The winters are not very severe in this part of the country, being
tempered by currents of the sea; but, notwithstanding that, the
gloaming was often laden with invisible icy rain, which fell upon
their shoulders as they sat together. But they remained there, feeling
warm and happy. The bench, which was more than a hundred years old,
did not seem in the least surprised at their love, having seen many
other pairs in its time; it had listened to many soft words, which are
always the same on the lips of the young, from generation to
generation; and it had become used to seeing lovers sit upon it again,
when they returned to it old and trembling; but in the broad day, this
time, to warm themselves in the last sun they would see.
From time to time Granny Moan would put her head out at the door to
have a look at them, and try to induce them to come in. "You'll catch
cold, my good children," said she, "and then you'll fall ill--Lord
knows, it really isn't sensible to remain out so late."
Cold! they cold? Were they conscious of anything else besides the
bliss of being together.
The passers-by in the evening down their pathway, heard the soft
murmur of two voices mingling with the voice of the sea, down below at
the foot of the cliffs. It was a most harmonious music; Gaud's sweet,
fresh voice alternated with Yann's, which had soft, caressing notes in
the lower tones. Their profiles could be clearly distinguished on the
granite wall against which they reclined; Gaud with her white headgear
and slender black-robed figure, and beside her the broad, square
shoulders of her beloved. Behind and above rose the ragged dome of the
straw thatch, and the darkening, infinite, and colourless waste of the
sea and sky floated over all.
Finally, they did go in to sit down by the hearth, whereupon old
Yvonne immediately nodded off to sleep, and did not trouble the two
lovers very much. So they went on communing in a low voice, having to
make up for two years of silence; they had to hurry on their courtship
because it was to last so short a time.
It was arranged that they were to live with Granny Moan, who would
leave them the cottage in her will; for the present, they made no
alterations in it, for want of time, and put off their plan for
embellishing their poor lonely home until the fisherman's return from
Iceland.
