'Did my father ever tell you?'

'No, he never told me.'

'Or Marie herself?'

'No, she did not tell me. Girls never tell those sort of things of
themselves.'

'Nor Madame Voss?' asked George.

'She never talks much about anything. But you may be sure it's
true. I'll tell you who told me first, and he is sure to know,
because he lives in the house. It was Peter Veque.'

'Peter Veque, indeed! And who do you think would tell him?'

'But isn't it quite likely? She has grown to be such a beauty!
Everybody gives it to her that she is the prettiest girl round
Granpere. And why shouldn't he marry her? If I had a lot of money,
I'd only look to get the prettiest girl I could find anywhere.'

After this, George said nothing farther to the young man as to the
marriage. If it was talked about as Edmond said, it was probably
true. And why should it not be true? Even though it were true, no
one would have cared to tell him. She might have been married twice
over, and no one in Granpere would have sent him word. So he
declared to himself. And yet Marie Bromar had once sworn to him
that she loved him, and would be his for ever and ever; and, though
he had left her in dudgeon, with black looks, without a kind word of