"Yes, monsieur," he replied, stopping to turn towards us the tanned face of those who remain for hours at a time exposed to the reflection of the sun on the water. That face indicated endless resignation; the patience of the fisherman, and his gentle manners. That man had a voice without trace of harshness, kindly lips, no ambition; an indefinably frail and sickly appearance. Any other type of face would have displeased us. "Where are you going to sell your fish?" "At the town." "How much will you get for the lobster?" "Fifteen sous." "And for the crab?" "Twenty sous." "Why so much difference between the lobster and the crab?" "The crab is much more delicate, monsieur; and then it's as cunning as a monkey, and don't often allow itself to be caught." "Will you let us have both for a hundred sous?" said Pauline. The man was thunderstruck. "You sha'n't have them!" I said laughingly; "I will give ten francs. We must pay for emotions all that they are worth." "Very well," she replied, "I propose to have them; I will give ten francs two sous." "Ten sous." "Twelve francs." "Fifteen francs." "Fifteen francs fifty," she said. "One hundred francs." "One hundred and fifty." I bowed. At that moment we were not rich enough to carry the bidding any farther. The poor fisherman did not know whether he ought to be angry as at a practical joke, or to exult; we relieved him from his dilemma by giving him the name of our landlady and telling him to take the lobster and the crab to her house. "Do you earn a living?" I asked him, in order to ascertain to what cause his destitution should be attributed. "With much difficulty and many hardships," he replied. "Fishing on the seashore, when you have neither boat nor nets, and can fish only with a line, is a risky trade. You see you have to wait for the fish or the shell-fish to come, while the fishermen with boats can go out to sea after them. It is so hard to earn a living this way, that I am the only man who fishes on the shore. I pass whole days without catching anything. The only way I get anything is when a crab forgets himself and goes to sleep, as this one did, or a lobster is fool enough to stay on the rocks. Sometimes, after a high sea, the wolf-fish come in, and then I grab them." "Well, take one day with another, what do you earn?" "Eleven or twelve sous. I could get along with that if I were alone; but I have my father to support, and the poor man can't help me, for he's blind." At that sentence, uttered with perfect simplicity, Pauline and I looked at each other without a word. "You have a wife or a sweetheart?" He cast at us one of the most pitiful glances that I ever saw, as he replied: "If I had a wife, then I should have to let my father go; I couldn't support him, and a wife and children too." "Well, my poor fellow, how is it that you don't try to earn more by carrying salt to the harbour, or by working in the salt marshes?"