this marriage with Adrian Urmand.  How was she to read it all?  Was there more than one way in which a wounded woman, so sore at heart, could read it?  He had told her that though he loved her still, it did not suit him to trouble himself with her as a wife; and that he would throw upon her head the guilt of having been false to their old vows.  Though she loved him better than all the world, she despised him for his thoughtful treachery.  In her eyes it was treachery.  He must have known the truth.  What right had he to suppose that she would be false to him,—­he, who had never known her to lie to him?  And was it not his business, as a man, to speak some word, to ask some question, by which, if he doubted, the truth might be made known to him?  She, a woman, could ask no question.  She could speak no word.  She could not renew her assurances to him, till he should have asked her to renew them.  He was either false, or a traitor, or a coward.  She was very angry with him;—­so angry that she was almost driven by her anger to throw herself into Adrian’s arms.  She was the more angry because she was full sure that he had not forgotten his old love,—­that his heart was not altogether changed.  Had it appeared to her that the sweet words of former days had vanished from his memory, though they had clung to hers,—­that he had in truth learned to look upon his Granpere experiences as the simple doings of his boyhood,—­her pride would have been hurt, but she would have been angry with herself rather than with him.  But it had not been so.  The respectful silence of his sojourn in the house had told her that it was not so.  The tremor in his voice as he reminded her that they once had been friends had plainly told her that it was not so.  He had acknowledged that they had been betrothed, and that the plight between them was still strong; but, wishing to be quit of it, he had thrown the burden of breaking it upon her.

She was very wretched, but she did not go about the house with downcast eyes or humble looks, or sit idle in a corner with her hands before her.  She was quick and eager in the performance of her work, speaking sharply to those who came in contact with her.  Peter Veque, her chief minister, had but a poor time of it in these days; and she spoke an angry word or two to Edmond Greisse.  She had, in truth, spoken no words to Edmond Greisse that were not angry since that ill-starred communication of which he had only given her the half.  To her aunt she was brusque, and almost ill-mannered.

‘What is the matter with you, Marie?’ Madame Voss said to her one morning, when she had been snubbed rather rudely by her niece.  Marie in answer shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.  ’If you cannot put on a better look before M. Urmand comes, I think he will hardly hold to his bargain,’ said Madame Voss, who was angry.

‘Who wants him to hold to his bargain?’ said Marie sharply.  Then feeling ill-inclined to discuss the matter with her aunt, she left the room.  Madame Voss, who had been assured by her husband that Marie had no real objection to Adrian Urmand, did not understand it all.