Upon the whole the rejected lover liked it.  At any rate it was better so than being alone and moody and despised of all people.  He would know now how to get away from Granpere without having to plan a surreptitious escape.  Of course he had come out intending to be miserable, to be known as an ill-used man who had been treated with an amount of cruelty surpassing all that had ever been told of in love histories.  To be depressed by the weight of the ill-usage which he had borne was a part of the play which he had to act.  But the play when acted after this fashion had in it something of pleasing excitement, and he felt assured that he was exhibiting dignity in very adverse circumstances.  George Voss was probably thinking ill of the young man all the while; but every one else there conceived that M. Urmand bore himself well under most trying circumstances.  After the banquet was over Marie expressed herself so much touched as almost to incur the jealousy of her more fortunate lover.  When the speeches were finished the men made themselves happy with their cigars and wine till Madame Voss declared that she was already half-dead with the cold and damp, and then they all returned to the inn in excellent spirits.  That which had made so bold both Michel and his guest had not been allowed to have any more extended or more deleterious effect.

On the next morning M. Urmand returned home to Basle, taking the public conveyance as far as Remiremont.  Everybody was up to see him off, and Marie herself gave him his cup of coffee at parting.  It was pretty to see the mingled grace and shame with which the little ceremony was performed.  She hardly said a word; indeed what word she did say was heard by no one; but she crossed her hands on her breast, and the gravest smile came over her face, and she turned her eyes down to the ground, and if any one ever begged pardon without a word spoken, Marie Bromar then asked Adrian Urmand to pardon her the evil she had wrought upon him.  ‘O, yes;—­of course,’ he said.  ‘It’s all right.  It’s all right.’  Then she gave him her hand, and said good-bye, and ran away up into her room.  Though she had got rid of one lover, not a word had yet been said as to her uncle’s acceptance of that other lover on her behalf; nor had any words more tender been spoken between her and George than those with which the reader has been made acquainted.

‘And now,’ said George, as soon as the diligence had started out of the yard.

‘Well;—­and what now?’ asked the father.

‘I must be off to Colmar next.’

‘Not to-day, George.’

’Yes; to-day;—­or this evening at least.  But I must settle something first.  What do you say, father?’ Michel Voss stood for a while with his hands in his pockets and his head turned away.  ’You know what I mean, father.’

‘O yes; I know what you mean.’

‘I don’t suppose you’ll say anything against it now.’