to see that she marries well.'

'That is quite true, father.'

'Then why do you talk to me about sending her away? I don't send
her away. Urmand comes and takes her away. I did the same when I
was young. Now I'm old, and I have to be left behind. It's the way
of nature.'

'But she doesn't want to be taken away,' said George, rushing at
once at his subject.

'What do you mean by that?'

'Just what I say, father. She consents to be taken away, but she
does not wish it.'

'I don't know what you mean. Has she been talking to you? Has she
been complaining?'

'I have been talking to her. I came over from Colmar when I heard
of this marriage on purpose that I might talk to her. I had at any
rate a right to do that.'

'Right to do what? I don't know that you have any right. If you
have been trying to do mischief in my house, George, I will never
forgive you--never.'

'I will tell you the whole truth, father; and then you shall say
yourself whether I have been trying to do mischief, and shall say