"P.S.--If I have enough money at Oran, I will lay in a large supply of tobacco, and, especially for you, of that sort which is like the Turkish tobacco, which you are fond of smoking. "The Captain has given me for you a table-napkin, the last you used on board. I have washed it, and, in doing so, I have torn it a little. "As regards the manuscript book you gave me for writing my notes, that too was spoilt by the storm and I have laid it aside. "Dear brother, I embrace you again with all my heart, "YVES KERMADEC. "P.S.--On board, things are just the same and the Captain has not changed his habit of insisting on the tidiness of the deck. There was a great dispute between him and the lieutenant, once more about the _cacatois_, you know. But they were good friends again, afterwards. "I have also to tell you that in seven or eight months, I think we shall have another little child. A thing, however, which does not altogether please me, for I think it is a little too soon. "Your brother, "YVES." CHAPTER LXXV I was in the Near East when these little letters of Yves reached me; they brought me, in their simplicity, the already far-off perfume of the Breton country. My memories of Brittany were fading fast. Even now I seemed to see them as through a mist of dreamland; the reefs I had known so well, the lights on the coast, Cape Finistère with its great dark rocks; and the dangerous approaches to Ushant on winter evenings, and the west wind blowing under a mournful sky, in the fall of December nights. From where I was now, it all seemed a vision of a sunless country. And the poor little cottage at Toulven! How small it seemed, lost at the side of a Breton lane! But it was the region of deep beech woods, of grey rocks, of lichens and mosses; of old granite chapels and high-growing grass speckled with red flowers. Here, sand and white minarets under a vault surpassingly blue, and sunshine, eternal, enchanting sunshine! CHAPTER LXXVI _Another Letter from Yves_ "BREST, 10_th September_, 1881. "MY DEAR BROTHER,--I have to tell you that our _Sèvre_ is being disarmed; we handed her over yesterday to the authorities at the docks; and, I can assure you, I am not very grieved about it. "I reckon on remaining for some time on shore, in the neighbourhood; also (since our little house is not very far advanced, as you will understand) my wife has come to live with me in Brest until it is finished. I think you will agree, dear brother, that we have done the right thing. This time we have taken rooms almost in the country, at Recouvrance, on the way to Pontaniou.