looking wife to sit at his table with him. Who'll blame him for
that? And he has found the prettiest in all the country round. But
he has wanted something more than good looks,--and he has got a
great deal more. Yes; I say it, I, Michel Voss, though I am your
uncle;--that he has got the pride of the whole country round. My
darling, my own one, my child!'

All this was said with many interjections, and with sundry pauses in
the speech, during which Michel caressed his niece, and pressed her
to his breast, and signified his joy by all the outward modes of
expression which a man so demonstrative knows how to use. This was
a moment of great triumph to him, because he had begun to despair of
success in this matter of the marriage, and had told himself on this
very morning that the affair was almost hopeless. While he had been
up in the wood, he had asked himself how he would treat Marie in
consequence of her disobedience to him; and he had at last succeeded
in producing within his own breast a state of mind that was not
perhaps very reasonable, but which was consonant with his character.
He would let her know that he was angry with her,--very angry with
her; that she had half broken his heart by her obstinacy; but after
that she should be to him his own Marie again. He would not throw
her off, because she disobeyed him. He could not throw her off,
because he loved her, and knew of no way by which he could get rid
of his love. But he would be very angry, and she should know of his
anger. He had come home wearing a black cloud on his brow, and
intending to be black. But all that was changed in a moment, and
his only thought now was how to give pleasure to this dear one. It
is something to have a niece who brings such credit on the family!

Marie as she listened to his praise and his ecstasies, knowing by a