OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

246 MAINLY MAIGRET
2. The Yellow Shoes
THEY walked side by side without looking at each other, first
along the beach, which was deserted at that hour, then along the
quays.
And gradually the silences became rarer. Marie Leonnec managed
to talk in an almost natural voice.
" You'll find that you'll like him straight away! You couldn't do
anything else. And then you'll understand that. . ."
Maigret stole curious and admiring glances at her. Jorissen had
gone back to Quimper in the early morning, leaving the girl alone
at Fecamp.
" I don't insist on her coming back with me. She has a will of her
own! " he had said.
The evening before, she had been as negative as a girl brought
up in the calm of a little town can be. But in less than an hour after
Jorissen's departure they were leaving the Hotel de la Plagey she and
Maigret.
Maigret wore his most forbidding look. But she just wasn't
impressed, refused to notice it, and smiled confidently.
" His only fault," she went on, " is that he is extremely sensitive.
But how should he be anything else? His father was only a fisher.
His mother mended nets for a long time so that he could be educated.
Now it is he who supports her. He is educated. He has a fine future
before him. ..."
" Are your parents well off? " Maigret asked bluntly.
" They are the biggest makers of nets and metal cables in
Quimper. That's why Pierre didn't even want to speak to my
father. For a whole year we met secretly. ..."
" You were both eighteen? "
" More or less. ... It was I who told my family. And Pierre swore
he would only marry me when he was earning at least two thousand
francs a month. You see . .."
" Has he written to you since he was arrested? "
" Only one letter. A very short one! And he who used to write
pages and pages every day! He said it would be better for me and
my parents that I should announce in the district that everything
had been broken off."
They passed the Ocian, which was still being unloaded. At high
tide her black hull dominated the wharf. On the fo'c's'le deck three