I believe it is so. They will probably make her marry him, whether
she likes it or not.'

'But she is betrothed to him. Of course she will marry him.'

'Then there will be an end of it,' said George.

There was one other question which Madame Faragon longed to ask; but
she was almost too much afraid of her young friend to put it into
words. At last she plucked up courage, and did ask her question
after an ambiguous way.

'But I suppose it is nothing to you, George?'

'Nothing at all. Nothing on earth,' said he. 'How should it be
anything to me?' Then he hesitated for a while, pausing to think
whether or not he would tell the truth to Madame Faragon. He knew
that there was no one on earth, setting aside his father and Marie
Bromar, to whom he was really so dear as he was to this old woman.
She would probably do more for him, if it might possibly be in her
power to do anything, than any other of his friends. And, moreover,
he did not like the idea of being false to her, even on such a
subject as this. 'It is only this to me,' he said, 'that she had
promised to be my wife, before they had ever mentioned Urmand's name
to her.'

'O, George!'

'And why should she not have promised?'