Madame Voss would have been quite contented to comply
with the priest’s counsel, could she have seen
the way with her husband. But it had become almost
manifest even to her, with the Cure to support her,
that the star of Adrian Urmand was on the wane.
She felt from every word that Marie spoke to her,
that Marie herself was confident of success.
And it may be said of Madame Voss, that although
she had been forced by Michel into a kind of enthusiasm
on behalf of the Swiss marriage, she had no very eager
wishes of her own on the subject. Marie was
her own niece, and was dear to her; but the girl was
sure of a well-to-do husband whichever way the war
went; and what aunt need desire more for her most favourite
niece than a well-to-do husband?
The day went by, and the supper was eaten, and the
cigars were smoked, and then they all went to bed.
But nothing more had been settled. That obstinate
young man, M.
Adrian Urmand, though he had talked
of his lawyer, had said not a word of going back to
Basle.
It is probable that all those concerned in the matter
who slept at the Lion d’Or that night, made
up their minds that on the following day the powers
of the establishment must come to some decision.
It was not right that a young woman should have to
live in the house with two favoured lovers; nor, as
regarded the young men, was it right that they should
be allowed to go on glaring at each other. Both
Michel and Madame Voss feared that they would do more
than glare, seeing that they were so like two dogs
with one bone between them, who, in such an emergency,
will generally fight. Urmand himself was quite
alive to the necessity of putting an end to his present
exceptionally disagreeable position. He was very
angry; very angry naturally with Marie, who had, he
thought, treated him villainously. Why had she
made that little soft, languid promise to him when
he was last at Granpere, if she had not then loved
him? And of course he was angry with George Voss.
What unsuccessful lover fails of being angry with
his happy rival? And then George had behaved
with outrageous impropriety. Urmand was beginning
now to have a clear insight of the circumstances.
George and Marie had been lovers, and then George,
having been sent away, had forgotten his love for
a year or more. But when the girl had been accommodated
with another lover, then he thrust himself forward
and disturbed everybody’s arrangements!
No conduct could have been worse than this.
But, nevertheless, Urmand’s anger was the hottest
against Michel Voss himself. Had he been left
alone at Basle, had he been allowed to receive Marie’s
letter, and act upon it in accordance with his own
judgment, he would never have made himself ridiculous
by appearing at Granpere as a discomfited lover.
But the innkeeper had come and dragged him away from
home, had misrepresented everything, had carried him
