enormous ridges or embankments of gray earth and filled with water, to
the surface of which the salt scum rises. These gullies, made by the
hand of man, are again divided by causeways, along which the laborers
pass, armed with long rakes, with which they drag this scum to the
bank, heaping it on platforms placed at equal distances when the salt
is fit to handle.

For two hours we skirted the edge of this melancholy checkerboard,
where salt has stifled all forms of vegetation, and where no one ever
comes but a few "paludiers," the local name given to the laborers of
the salt marshes. These men, or rather this clan of Bretons, wear a
special costume: a white jacket, something like that of brewers. They
marry among themselves. There is no instance of a girl of the tribe
having ever married any man who was not a paludier.

The horrible aspects of these marshes, these sloughs, the mud of which
was systematically raked, the dull gray earth that the Breton flora
held in horror, were in keeping with the gloom that filled our souls.
When we reached a spot where we crossed an arm of the sea, which no
doubt serves to feed the stagnant salt-pools, we noticed with relief
the puny vegetation which sprouted through the sand of the beach. As
we crossed, we saw the island on which the Cambremers had lived; but
we turned away our heads.

Arriving at the hotel, we noticed a billiard-table, and finding that
it was the only billiard-table in Croisic, we made our preparations to
leave during the night. The next day we went to Guerande. Pauline was
still sad, and I myself felt a return of that fever of the brain which
will destroy me. I was so cruelly tortured by the visions that came to
me of those three lives, that Pauline said at last,--