"Ah! monsieur!" she said, "are you also going to Guadeloupe?" "Alas! no, madame," I said; "greatly to my regret I am not; but it is precisely because I am remaining behind that you find me here." "I do not understand you, monsieur." "I noticed your sadness, and know that you are leaving those who are very dear to you. Therefore, as I am a fellow-countryman of yours, I thought I would take your last messages to your friends." "Oh, monsieur," she said, "how good of you!" And she looked at her husband as if to ask him how far she might enter into a conversation of this nature with a stranger. He smiled, and held out his hand, and with one quick glance gave his wife leave to do what she liked. "Yes," he said, "be so good as to take my dear Pauline's last farewell messages to her family; and tell her mother especially, if you see her, that in less than three years' time we will come back and pay her a visit." "Three years!" murmured the young wife dubiously. "And tell this foolish child, monsieur," he went on, kissing his wife's forehead, "that it is easier to get to and from Guadeloupe now than it was in old days to get to Saint-Cloud.... I am not yet thirty, and I have already made a dozen voyages between Pointe-à-Pître and Nantes." "Yes, my dear! You tell me that now, but eighteen hundred leagues is a long way!" "Six weeks' voyage ... that isn't much surely?" I pointed out to the young wife a swallow which was skimming about the masts. "That bird takes just such a voyage twice a year, madame," I said to her, "guided by its instinct alone." "Yes, but it is a bird," she said, sighing. I tried to give a fresh turn to the conversation. "Monsieur," I said to the husband, "I heard you addressing madame as Pauline... _La Pauline_ is the name of the boat on which we are standing; is it a mere coincidence or by your own selection that the names are the same?" "It was my own choice, monsieur; there were three or four ships in the river, and I decided on this one.... I thought that besides her saintly patron I would give her one in addition.... Are you amused at my superstition?" "Not at all, monsieur, quite the reverse. I appreciate all superstitions--particularly those which have love as their basis. It has always seemed to me impossible to love sincerely without feeling vague terrors on behalf of the beloved object, that make even the stoutest hearted a prey to superstitious feelings." The young wife listened to me for a little while. "Oh, monsieur," she then began, holding out her hand, "what a kind idea it was of yours to see us off!" "I hope then, madame, that you will depute me to carry any last messages to your family."