say that he had no money, that he could not ask his father for
money, and that he had not made up his mind to settle at Colmar.
Madame Faragon, who was naturally much interested in the matter, and
was moreover not without curiosity, could never quite learn how
matters stood at Granpere. A word or two she had heard in a
circuitous way of Marie Bromar, but from George himself she could
never learn anything of his affairs at home. She had asked him once
or twice whether it would not be well that he should marry, but he
had always replied that he did not think of such a thing--at any
rate as yet. He was a steady young man, given more to work than to
play, and apparently not inclined to amuse himself with the girls of
the neighbourhood.

One day Edmond Greisse was over at Colmar--Edmond Greisse, the lad
whose untidy appearance at the supper-table at the Lion d'Or had
called down the rebuke of Marie Bromar. He had been sent over on
some business by his employer, and had come to get his supper and
bed at Madame Faragon's hotel. He was a modest, unassuming lad, and
had been hardly more than a boy when George Voss had left Granpere.
From time to time George had seen some friend from the village, and
had thus heard tidings from home. Once, as has been said, Madame
Voss had made a pilgrimage to Madame Faragon's establishment to
visit him; but letters between the houses had not been frequent.
Though postage in France--or shall we say Germany?--is now almost as
low as in England, these people of Alsace have not yet fallen into
the way of writing to each other when it occurs to any of them that
a word may be said. Young Greisse had seen the landlady, who now
never went upstairs among her guests, and had had his chamber
allotted to him, and was seated at the supper-table, before he met
George Voss. It was from Madame Faragon that George heard of his