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Updated: August 4, 2024
He was sure that his father, having been a party to the betrothal, would never consent to a breach of his promise to Urmand. Madame Voss, Madame Faragon, the priest, and their Protestant pastor would all be against them. They would be as it were outcasts from their own family.
And he did succeed in obtaining from M. Urmand a sort of promise that he would not regard the words of the letter as in truth expressing Marie's real resolution. 'Girls, you know, are such queer cattle, said Michel. 'They think about all manner of things, and then they don't know what they are thinking. 'But who is the other man? demanded Adrian, as soon as he had finished the letter.
'There isn't a soul even to play a game of billiards with. Now Michel Voss, although for a purpose he had been willing to make little of his own village, did in truth consider that Granpere was at any rate as good a place to live in as Basle. And he felt that though he might abuse Granpere, it was very uncourteous in Adrian Urmand to do so.
He was still as sure as ever that as things stood now, it was his duty to do all in his power to bring about the marriage between his niece and Adrian Urmand. 'But since that, there has been nothing, continued he, 'absolutely nothing. Ask her, and she will tell you so. It is some romantic idea of hers that she ought to stick to her first promise, now that she has been reminded of it.
He acknowledged that it was useless for him to attempt to get rid of the matter and let it be as though there were no such persons in the world as Marie Bromar and Adrian Urmand. He must think about it; but he might so give play to his feelings that no one should see him in the moments of his wretchedness.
And he would point out to this suitor how dastardly a thing it would be to take advantage of a girl so placed. He planned a speech or two as he drove along which he thought that even Urmand, thick-skinned as he believed him to be, would dislike to hear.
That obstinate young man, M. Adrian Urmand, though he had talked of his lawyer, had said not a word of going back to Basle. It is probable that all those concerned in the matter who slept at the Lion d'Or that night, made up their minds that on the following day the powers of the establishment must come to some decision.
'I never thought about the time of the year, he said; 'but when friends are here and we want to do our best for them, we always take them to the ravine, and have dinners on the rocks. It had seemed to him, and as he declared to Urmand also, that if something like a jubilee could be got up before the young man's departure, it would appear as though there could not have been much disappointment.
I do not wish to leave the hotel, or to be married at all. 'Nay, Marie, you will certainly be married some day. 'No; there is no such certainty. Some girls never get married. I am of use here, and I am happy here. 'Ah! it is because you cannot love me. 'I don't suppose I shall ever love any one, not in that way. I must go away now, M. Urmand, because I am wanted below.
Michel had said a thousand things in favour of his niece and not a word to her prejudice; but he had so spoken, or had endeavoured so to speak, as to make Urmand understand that Marie could only be won with difficulty, and that she was perhaps unaccountably averse to the idea of matrimony. 'She is like a young filly, you know, that starts and plunges when she is touched, he had said.
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