He knew that he had been silly and absurd, but he knew also that he was so moved as to have hardly any control over himself. In the few words that he had now said to Madame Faragon he had, as he felt, told the story of his own disappointment; and yet he had not in the least intended to take the old woman into his confidence. He had not meant to have said a word about the quarrel between himself and his father, and now he had told everything. When she saw him again in the evening, of course she asked him some farther questions. 'George,' she said, 'I am afraid things are not going pleasantly at Granpere.' 'Not altogether,' he answered. 'But I suppose the marriage will go on?' To this he made no answer, but shook his head, showing how impatient he was at being thus questioned. 'You ought to tell me,' said Madame Faragon plaintively, 'considering how interested I must be in all that concerns you.' 'I have nothing to tell.' 'But is the marriage to be put off?' again demanded Madame Faragon, with extreme anxiety. 'Not that I know of, Madame Faragon: they will not ask me whether it is to be put off or not.' 'But have they quarrelled with M. Urmand?' 'No; nobody has quarrelled with M. Urmand.' 'Was he there, George?' 'What, with me! No; he was not there with me. I have never seen the man since I first left Granpere to come here.' And then George Voss began to think what might have happened had Adrian Urmand been at the hotel while he was there himself. After all, what could he have said to Adrian Urmand? or what could he have done to him? 'He hasn't written, has he, to say that he is off his bargain?' Poor Madame Faragon was almost pathetic in her anxiety to learn what had really occurred at the Lion d'Or. 'Certainly not. He has not written at all.' 'Then what is it, George?' 'I suppose it is this,--that Marie Bromar cares nothing for him.' 'But so rich as he is! And they say, too, such a good-looking young man.' 'It is wonderful, is it not? It is next to a miracle that there should be a girl deaf and blind to such charms. But, nevertheless, I believe it is so. They will probably make her marry him, whether she likes it or not.' 'But she is betrothed to him. Of course she will marry him.' 'Then there will be an end of it,' said George. There was one other question which Madame Faragon longed to ask; but she was almost too much afraid of her young friend to put it into words. At last she plucked up courage, and did ask her question after an ambiguous way. 'But I suppose it is nothing to you, George?'