"Well, had a pleasant journey, M'ame Honorine?"
"Fine!"
"And where have you been?"
"Why, Paris . . . a week of it . . . running errands for my master."
"Glad to be back?"
"Of course I am."
"And you see, M'ame Honorine, you find your boat just where she was. I came to have a look at her every day. This morning I took away her tarpaulin. Does she run as well as ever?"
"First-rate."
"Besides, you're a master pilot, you are. Who'd have thought, M'ame Honorine, that you'd be doing a job like this?"
"It's the war. All the young men in our island are gone and the old ones are fishing. Besides, there's no longer a fortnightly steamboat service, as there used to be. So I go the errands."