of armour. There was, therefore, nothing more said about clothes.
Marie was to dispense her soup as usual,--expressing a confident
assurance that if Peter were as yet to attempt this special branch
of duty, the whole supper would collapse,--and then she was to take
her place at the table, next to her uncle. Everybody in the house,
everybody in Granpere, knew that the marriage had been arranged, and
the old lady who had been so dreadfully snubbed by Marie, had
forgiven the offence, acknowledging that Marie's position on that
evening had been one of difficulty.

But these arrangements had reference only to two days. After two
days, Adrian was to return to Basle, and to be seen no more at
Granpere till he came to claim his bride. In regard to the choice
of the day, Michel declared roundly that no constraint should be put
upon Marie. She should have her full privileges, and no one should
be allowed to interfere with her. On this point Marie had brought
herself to be almost indifferent. A long engagement was a state of
things which would have been quite incompatible with such a
betrothal. Any delay that could have been effected would have been
a delay, not of months, but of days,--or at most of a week or two.
She had made up her mind that she would not be afraid of her
wedding. She would teach herself to have no dread either of the man
or of the thing. He was not a bad man, and marriage in itself was
honourable. She formed ideas also of some future true friendship
for her husband. She would endeavour to have a true solicitude for
his interests, and would take care, at any rate, that nothing was
squandered that came into her hands. Of what avail would it be to
her that she should postpone for a few days the beginning of a
friendship that was to last all her life? Such postponement could
only be induced by a dread of the man, and she was firmly determined