She would make no engagement with George unless with her uncle's
sanction; but a word, a look of love, would fortify her against that
other marriage.

George, she thought, had come back a man more to be worshipped than
ever, as far as appearance went. What woman could doubt for a
moment between two such men? Adrian Urmand was no doubt a pretty
man, with black hair, of which he was very careful, with white
hands, with bright small dark eyes which were very close together,
with a thin regular nose, a small mouth, and a black moustache,
which he was always pointing with his fingers. It was impossible to
deny that he was good-looking after a fashion; but Marie despised
him in her heart. She was almost bigger than he was, certainly
stronger, and had no aptitude for the city niceness and POINT-DEVICE
fastidiousness of such a lover. George Voss had come back, not
taller than when he had left them, but broader in the shoulders, and
more of a man. And then he had in his eye, and in his beaked nose,
and his large mouth, and well-developed chin, that look of command,
which was the peculiar character of his father's face, and which
women, who judge of men by their feelings rather than their
thoughts, always love to see. Marie, if she would consent to marry
Adrian Urmand, might probably have her own way in the house in
everything; whereas it was certain enough that George Voss, wherever
he might be, would desire to have his way. But yet there needed not
a moment, in Marie's estimation, to choose between the two. George
Voss was a real man; whereas Adrian Urmand, tried by such a
comparison, was in her estimation simply a rich trader in want of a
wife.

In a day or two the fatted calf was killed, and all went happily