A. T. Quiller-Couch

“ They regard all such as their rightful harvest: the feeling is in their blood, and I have many times argued in vain against it. Once while I argued, here in Île Lezan, an old man asked me, 'But, father, if it were not for such chances, why should any man choose to dwell by the sea?' If, monsieur, you lived among them and knew their hardships, you would see some rude sense in that question.
“To Lucien, feasting his eyes by stealth on the diamonds and counting the days to his relief, the stones meant that Jeanne and happiness were now close within his grasp. ”

“ Folk live long on tle Lezan—women-folk especially; accidents at the fishery keep down the men. Still, and allowing for that, the average is high. Lucien had even a great-grandmother alive—a most worthy soul: and on Jeanne's side the grandparents survived on both sides. Where there are grandparents they must be maintained.
“No one builds on Île Lezan. Lucien and Jeanne—on either side their families crowded to the very windows. If only the smallest hovel might fall vacant!... For a week or two it seemed that a cottage might drop in their way. ”

“ He had nothing to do, he told me, with his companions, but was just a plain parish priest returning from an errand of business.
He announced this with a fine roll of the voice. “Of business,” he repeated. “The English are a great nation for business. But how warm of heart, notwithstanding!”
“That is not always reckoned to us,” said I.
“But I reckon it ... Tenez, that will be Île Vierge—there, with the lighthouse standing white—as it were, against the cliffs: but the cliffs belong in fact to the mainland.... And now in a few minutes we come abreast of my parish—the Île Lezan... See, see!” ”

“ Lucien was nineteen, and Jeanne maybe a year younger. From the beginning, it had been an understood thing: to this extent understood, that Lucien, instead of sailing to the fishery (whither go most of the young men of Île Lezan and the coast hereabouts) was destined from the first to enter the lighthouse service under Government. The letters I have written to Government on his behalf! I am not one of those who quarrel with the Republic. Still—a priest, and in this out-of-the-way spot—what is he?
“However, Lucien got his appointment. The pay? Enough to marry on for a free couple. ”

“ On my way to the docks, that morning, I had overtaken and passed them straggling by twos and threes to the steamer; the men in broad-brimmed hats with velvet ribbons, the women coifed and bodiced after the fashion of their country, each group shepherded by a priest ”

“ If some of the strangeness had worn off, they certainly appeared no less forlorn as they sat huddled in physical anguish, dumb, immobile, staring at the sea.
The little Curé, however, was vivacious enough for ten. It was impossible to avoid making friends with him. ”

“ But I am glad: it spreads the mind.” Here he put his hands together and drew them apart as though extending a concertina. “I have seen you English at home. If monsieur, who is on tour, could only spare the time to visit me on Île Lezan!”
Well, the end of it was that before we parted on the quay at Brest I found myself under half a promise; and, a week later, having (as I put it to myself) nothing better to do, I took the train to a little wind-swept terminus, whence a ramshackle cart jolted me to Port Lezan, on the coast ”

“ There were rings of diamonds on her fingers too: and afterwards many fine gems were found sewn within a short vest or camisole of silk she wore under her night-dress. But Lucien's eyes were fastened on the three necklaces.
“Doubtless the poor lady, aroused in her berth as the ship struck, had clasped these hurriedly about her throat before rushing on deck. So, might her life be spared, she would save with it many thousands of pounds. They tell me since that, in moments of panic, women always think first of their jewels. ”