I could see him at a distance giving orders by signs to his labourers. Then I caught sight of the carriage which was waiting for me in the shade of a tree, and I returned to Saint-Tropez. _April 14th_. I was going to bed yesterday evening, although it was only nine o'clock, when a telegram was handed to me. A friend, one of my dearest, sent me this message: "I am at Monte-Carlo for four days, and have been telegraphing to you at every port on the coast. Come to me at once." And behold, the wish to see him, the longing to talk, to laugh, to gossip about society, about things, about people; the longing to slander, to criticize, to blame, to judge, to chatter, was alight within me in a moment, like a conflagration. On that morning, even, I should have been furious at this recall, yet in the evening I was enchanted at it; I wished myself already there, with the great dining-room of the restaurant full of people before my eyes, and in my ears that murmur of voices in which the numbers of the roulette table dominate all other phrases, like the _Dominus vobiscum_ of the church services. I called Bernard. "We shall start at about four o'clock in the morning for Monaco," I said to him. He replied philosophically: "If it is fine, sir." "It _will_ be fine." "The barometer is going down, though." "Pooh! it will go up again." The mariner smiled an incredulous smile. I went to bed and to sleep. It was I who woke the men. It was dark, and a few clouds hid the sky. The barometer had gone down still more. The two men shook their heads with a distrustful air. I repeated: "Pooh! it will be fine. Come, let us be off!" [Illustration 58] Bernard said: "When I can see the open, I know what I am about; but here, in this harbour, at the end of this gulf, one knows nothing, sir, one can see nothing; there might be a fearful sea on, without our knowing anything about it." I replied: "The barometer has gone down, therefore we shall not have an east wind. Now, if we have a west wind, we can put into Agay, which is only six or seven miles off." The men did not seem much reassured; however, they got ready to start. "Shall we take the dingy on deck," asked Bernard. "No, you will see it will be quite fine. Let it tow astern as usual." A quarter of an hour later, we had quitted the harbour, and were running through the entrance of the gulf, to a light and intermittent breeze. I laughed. "Well you see, the weather is good enough." Soon, we had passed the black and white tower built upon the Rabiou shoal, and although sheltered by Cape Camarat which runs far out into the open sea, and of which the flashing light appeared from minute to minute, the _Bel-Ami_ was already lifted forwards by long powerful slow waves; those hills of water which move on, one behind the other, without noise, without shock, without foam, menacing without fury, alarming in their very tranquillity.