In front of the Place de la Bourse Roland paused, as he did every day, to gaze at the docks full of vessels--the _Bassin du Commerce_, with other docks beyond, where the huge hulls lay side by side, closely packed in rows, four or five deep.

And masts innumerable; along several kilometres of quays the endless masts, with their yards, poles, and rigging, gave this great gap in the heart of the town the look of a dead forest.

Above this leafless forest the gulls were wheeling, and watching to pounce, like a falling stone, on any scraps flung overboard; a sailor boy, fixing a pulley to a cross-beam, looked as if he had gone up there bird's-nesting.
"Will you dine with us without any sort of ceremony, just that we may end the day together ?" said Mme.

Roland to her friend.
"To be sure I will, with pleasure; I accept equally without ceremony.

It would be dismal to go home and be alone this evening." Pierre, who had heard, and who was beginning to be restless under the young woman's indifference, muttered to himself: "Well, the widow is taking root now, it would seem." For some days past he had spoken of her as "the widow." The word, harmless in itself, irritated Jean merely by the tone given to it, which to him seemed spiteful and offensive.
The three men spoke not another word till they reached the threshold of their own house.