George, she thought, had come back a man more to be worshipped than ever, as far as appearance went.  What woman could doubt for a moment between two such men?  Adrian Urmand was no doubt a pretty man, with black hair, of which he was very careful, with white hands, with bright small dark eyes which were very close together, with a thin regular nose, a small mouth, and a black moustache, which he was always pointing with his fingers.  It was impossible to deny that he was good-looking after a fashion; but Marie despised him in her heart.  She was almost bigger than he was, certainly stronger, and had no aptitude for the city niceness and point-device fastidiousness of such a lover.  George Voss had come back, not taller than when he had left them, but broader in the shoulders, and more of a man.  And then he had in his eye, and in his beaked nose, and his large mouth, and well-developed chin, that look of command, which was the peculiar character of his father’s face, and which women, who judge of men by their feelings rather than their thoughts, always love to see.  Marie, if she would consent to marry Adrian Urmand, might probably have her own way in the house in everything; whereas it was certain enough that George Voss, wherever he might be, would desire to have his way.  But yet there needed not a moment, in Marie’s estimation, to choose between the two.  George Voss was a real man; whereas Adrian Urmand, tried by such a comparison, was in her estimation simply a rich trader in want of a wife.

In a day or two the fatted calf was killed, and all went happily between George and his father.  They walked together up into the mountains, and looked after the wood-cutting, and discussed the prospects of the inn at Colmar.  Michel was disposed to think that George had better remain at Colmar, and accept Madame Faragon’s offer.  ’If you think that the house is worth anything, I will give you a few thousand francs to set it in order; and then you had better agree to allow her so much a year for her life.’  He probably felt himself to be nearly as young a man as his son; and then remember too that he had other sons coming up, who would be able to carry on the house at Granpere when he should be past his work.  Michel was a loving, generous-hearted man, and all feeling of anger with his son was over before they had been together two days.  ’You can’t do better, George,’ he said.  ’You need not always stay away from us for twelve months, and I might take a turn over the mountain, and get a lesson as to how you do things at Colmar.  If ten thousand francs will help you, you shall have them.  Will that make things go straight with you?’ George Voss thought the sum named would make things go very straight; but as the reader knows, he had another matter near to his heart.  He thanked his father; but not in the joyous thoroughly contented tone that Michel had expected.  ‘Is there anything wrong about it?’ Michel said in that sharp tone which he used when something had suddenly displeased him.