The plot is very simple. It is laid in Paimpol, in Brittany, whose dwellers rely solely upon the Iceland fisheries. Every year these hardy Vikings of Northern France fare away to the Iceland waters and return only after a long season there. The chief characters are Yann Gaos, a great splendid young fisherman with handsome brown curls, and Gaud, the daughter of “the great man” of the town. The two are in love, and Yann ventures some hesitating advances; but her father’s wealth deters the fisherman from making a full avowal. However, when Gaud’s father dies she is found to be penniless; still Yann unaccountably holds back, much to Gaud’s secret sorrow. Homeless, she goes to live with Granny Moan, the grandmother of the ill-fated young Sylvestre, who had been betrothed to Yann’s sister. At length, in the little hut where Gaud lives as the bereft old woman’s foster-grandchild, she and Yann are married. Only a few days after their wedding, the bridegroom sails away on the fine new _Léopoldine_ for the Iceland fisheries. When autumn comes the boat does not return with the others. All that is heard of her is from the crew of the _Marie-Jeanne_, who report a mystic meeting with the _Léopoldine_ in a dense fog, when each vessel loomed up to the other out of the mist and then passed spectre-like away, with time for only a few quick cries of recognition from fellow-townsmen. The final scene opens with all the town awaiting the return of the fishers. One vessel has already come in, and then opens this closing episode. THE MARRIAGE TO THE SEA AN EPISODE FROM “AN ICELAND FISHERMAN” (_PECHEUR D’ISLANDE_) By Pierre Loti _Done into English by the Editor_ The Iceland ships were returning--two the second day, four the next, and twelve during the week following. And throughout the country joy returned with them--there was happiness for the wives and mothers; happiness too in the taverns where the pretty Paimpol girls served drink to the fishermen. The _Léopoldine_ was in the group of belated ones; there were still ten missing. They could not be long now, and Gaud, in the thought that Yann would be there within a week--an extreme of delay which she allowed for so as not to be disappointed--was in a delicious intoxication of expectancy, keeping the home well in order--very clean and very neat--to receive him. Everything being in readiness, there was nothing more for her to do; besides, in her impatience her head could hold only the one thought. Three more of the tardy ships now arrived, and then five. Only two were wanting from the muster. “Come!” they said to her laughingly, “this year it is either the _Léopoldine_ or the _Marie-Jeanne_ that will have to stay behind 'to sweep up.’” And Gaud laughed--even she--more animated and more beautiful in her joy of anticipation. Meanwhile the days passed by.