Matters had not gone very easily with George Voss in all the changes he had made during the last year.  Some things he was obliged to do without consulting Madame Faragon at all.  Then she would discover what was going on, and there would be a ‘few words.’  At other times he would consult her, and carry his purpose only after much perseverance.  Twice or thrice he had told her that he must go away, and then with many groans she had acceded to his propositions.  It had been necessary to expend two thousand francs in establishing the omnibus, and in that affair the appearance of things had been at one time quite hopeless.  And then when George had declared that the altered habits of the people required that the hour of the morning table-d’hote should be changed from noon to one, she had sworn that she would not give way.  She would never lend her assent to such vile idleness.  It was already robbing the business portion of the day of an hour.  She would wrap her colours round her and die upon the ground sooner than yield.  ‘Then they won’t come,’ said George, ’and it’s no use you having the table then.  They will all go to the Hotel de l’Imperatrice.’  This was a new house, the very mention of which was a dagger-thrust into the bosom of Madame Faragon.  ’Then they will be poisoned,’ she said.  ’And let them!  It is what they are fit for.’  But the change was made, and for the first three days she would not come out of her room.  When the bell was rung at the obnoxious hour, she stopped her ears with her two hands.

But though there had been these contests, Madame Faragon had made more than one effort to induce George Voss to become her partner and successor in the house.  If he would only bring in a small sum of money—­a sum which must be easily within his father’s reach—­he should have half the business now, and all of it when Madame Faragon had gone to her rest.  Or if he would prefer to give Madame Faragon a pension—­a moderate pension—­she would give up the house at once.  At these tender moments she used to say that he probably would not begrudge her a room in which to die.  But George Voss would always say that he had no money, that he could not ask his father for money, and that he had not made up his mind to settle at Colmar.  Madame Faragon, who was naturally much interested in the matter, and was moreover not without curiosity, could never quite learn how matters stood at Granpere.  A word or two she had heard in a circuitous way of Marie Bromar, but from George himself she could never learn anything of his affairs at home.  She had asked him once or twice whether it would not be well that he should marry, but he had always replied that he did not think of such a thing—­at any rate as yet.  He was a steady young man, given more to work than to play, and apparently not inclined to amuse himself with the girls of the neighbourhood.