Urmand’s journeys to Granpere had been commenced before George Voss had left the place, and therefore the two young men had known each other.

‘They say he’s very rich,’ said Edmond.

’I thought he cared for nobody but himself.  And are you sure?  Who told you?’

’I am quite sure; but I do not know who told me.  They are all talking about it.’

‘Did my father ever tell you?’

‘No, he never told me.’

‘Or Marie herself?’

’No, she did not tell me.  Girls never tell those sort of things of themselves.’

‘Nor Madame Voss?’ asked George.

’She never talks much about anything.  But you may be sure it’s true.  I’ll tell you who told me first, and he is sure to know, because he lives in the house.  It was Peter Veque.’

‘Peter Veque, indeed!  And who do you think would tell him?’

’But isn’t it quite likely?  She has grown to be such a beauty! 
Everybody gives it to her that she is the prettiest girl round
Granpere.  And why shouldn’t he marry her?  If I had a lot of money,
I’d only look to get the prettiest girl I could find anywhere.’

After this, George said nothing farther to the young man as to the marriage.  If it was talked about as Edmond said, it was probably true.  And why should it not be true?  Even though it were true, no one would have cared to tell him.  She might have been married twice over, and no one in Granpere would have sent him word.  So he declared to himself.  And yet Marie Bromar had once sworn to him that she loved him, and would be his for ever and ever; and, though he had left her in dudgeon, with black looks, without a kind word of farewell, yet he had believed her.  Through all his sojourn at Colmar he had told himself that she would be true to him.  He believed it, though he was hardly sure of himself—­had hardly resolved that he would ever go back to Granpere to seek her.  His father had turned him out of the house, and Marie had told him as he went that she would never marry him if her uncle disapproved it.  Slight as her word had been on that morning of his departure, it had rankled in his bosom, and made him angry with her through a whole twelvemonth.  And yet he had believed that she would be true to him!

He went out in the evening when it was dusk and walked round and round the public garden of Colmar, thinking of the news which he had heard—­the public garden, in which stands the statue of General Rapp.  It was a terrible blow to him.  Though he had remained a whole year in Colmar without seeing Marie, or hearing of her, without hardly ever having had her name upon his lips, without even having once assured himself during the whole time that the happiness of his life would depend on the girl’s constancy to him,—­now that he heard that she was to be married to another man, he was torn to pieces by anger and regret.  He had sworn to love her,