square like a lawyer's, his mustache and beard shaved away, replied:

"Oh, not many; three or four."

The father turned to the younger. "And you, Jean?" said he.

Jean, a tall fellow, much younger than his brother, fair, with a full
beard, smiled and murmured:

"Much the same as Pierre--four or five."

Every time they told the same fib, which delighted father Roland. He had
hitched his line round a row-lock, and folding his arms he announced:

"I will never again try to fish after noon. After ten in the morning it
is all over. The lazy brutes will not bite; they are taking their siesta
in the sun." And he looked round at the sea on all sides, with the
satisfied air of a proprietor.

He was a retired jeweller who had been led by an inordinate love of
seafaring and fishing to fly from the shop as soon as he had made enough
money to live in modest comfort on the interest of his savings. He
retired to le Havre, bought a boat, and became an amateur skipper.
His two sons, Pierre and Jean, had remained at Paris to continue their
studies, and came for the holidays from time to time to share their
father's amusements.

On leaving school, Pierre, the elder, five years older than Jean, had
felt a vocation to various professions and had tried half a dozen in
succession, but, soon disgusted with each in turn, he started afresh