In the mean time, Michel Voss had reached Basle, arriving there some five hours before Marie's letter, and, in his ignorance of the law, had made his futile attempt to intercept the letter before it reached the hands of M. Urmand. But he was with Urmand when the letter was delivered, and endeavoured to persuade his young friend not to open it. But in doing this he was obliged to explain, to a certain extent, what was the nature of the letter. He was obliged to say so much about it as to justify the unhappy lover in asserting that it would be better for them all that he should know the contents. 'At any rate, you will promise not to believe it,' said Michel. And he did succeed in obtaining from M. Urmand a sort of promise that he would not regard the words of the letter as in truth expressing Marie's real resolution. 'Girls, you know, are such queer cattle,' said Michel. 'They think about all manner of things, and then they don't know what they are thinking.' 'But who is the other man?' demanded Adrian, as soon as he had finished the letter. Any one judging from his countenance when he asked the question would have imagined that in spite of his promise he believed every word that had been written to him. His face was a picture of blank despair, and his voice was low and hoarse. 'You must know whom she means,' he added, when Michel did not at once reply. 'Yes; I know whom she means.' 'Who is it then, M. Voss?' 'It is George, of course,' replied the innkeeper. 'I did not know,' said poor Adrian Urmand. 'She never spoke a dozen words to any other man in her life, and as for him, she has hardly seen him for the last eighteen months. He has come over and said something to her, like a traitor,--has reminded her of some childish promise, some old vow, something said when they were children, and meaning nothing; and so he has frightened her.' 'I was never told that there was anything between them,' said Urmand, beginning to think that it would become him to be indignant. 'There was nothing to tell,--literally nothing.' 'They must have been writing to each other.'