He also was unmarried.

O then⁠—all was well. She could not have wives left alone at home; but since there were no wives in the question, we were doing the best we could.

“To see about one in the world,” said the husband, “ il n’y a que ça ⁠—there is nothing else worth while. A man, look you, who sticks in his own village like a bear,” he went on, “⁠—very well, he sees nothing. And then death is the end of all. And he has seen nothing.”

Madame reminded her husband of an Englishman who had come up this canal in a steamer.

“Perhaps Mr. Moens in the Ytene ,” I suggested.