anger should rise hot against her? But now she had promised her
uncle, and she knew that she could not go back from her word. It
would be better for her, she told herself, to think no more about
it. Things must arrange themselves. What did it matter whether she
were wretched at Basle or wretched at Granpere? The only thing that
could give a charm to her life was altogether out of her reach.

After this conversation, Michel went upstairs to his young friend,
and within a quarter of an hour had handed him over to his wife. It
was of course understood now that Marie was not to be troubled till
the time came for her to sit down at table with her smart frock.
Michel explained to his wife the full amount of his success, and
acknowledged that he felt that Marie was already pretty nearly
overcome.

'She'll try to be pleasant for my sake this evening,' he said, 'and
so she'll fall into the way of being intimate with him; and when he
asks her to-morrow she'll be forced to take him.'

It never occurred to him, as he said this, that he was forming a
plan for sacrificing the girl he loved. He imagined that he was
doing his duty by his niece thoroughly, and was rather proud of his
own generosity. In the afternoon Adrian Urmand was taken out for a
drive to the ravine by Madame Voss. They both, no doubt, felt that
this was very tedious; but they were by nature patient--quite unlike
Michel Voss or Marie--and each of them was aware that there was a
duty to be done. Adrian therefore was satisfied to potter about the
ravine, and Madame Voss assured him at least a dozen times that it
was the dearest wish of her heart to call him her nephew-in-law.