The Golden Lion of Granpere | Page 9

Greisse had sat down with such dirty hands that she must bid her uncle
to warn the lad; and observed that the more elderly of the two ladies
from Epinal had bread too hard to suit her,--which should be changed
as soon as the soup had been dispensed. She looked round, and even
while dispensing saw everything. It was suggested in the last chapter
that another house might have been built in Granpere, and that George
Voss might have gone there, taking Marie as his bride; but the Lion
d'Or would sorely have missed those quick and careful eyes.
Then, when that dispensing of the soup was concluded, Michel entered
the room bringing with him a young man. The young man had
evidently been expected; for, when he took the place close at the left
hand of Madame Voss, she simply bowed to him, saying some word of
courtesy as Michel took his place on the other side. Then Marie
dispensed two more portions of soup, and leaving one on the farther
table for the boy to serve, though she could well have brought the two,
waited herself upon her uncle. 'And is Urmand to have no soup?' said
Michel Voss, as he took his niece lovingly by the hand.
'Peter is bringing it,' said Marie. And in a moment or two Peter the
waiter did bring the young man his soup.
'And will not Mademoiselle Marie sit down with us?' said the young
man.
'If you can make her, you have more influence than I,' said Michel.
'Marie never sits, and never eats, and never drinks.' She was standing
now close behind her uncle with both her hands upon his head; and she
would often stand so after the supper was commenced, only moving to
attend upon him, or to supplement the services of Peter and the
maid-servant when she perceived that they were becoming for a time
inadequate to their duties. She answered her uncle now by gently
pulling his ears, but she said nothing.
'Sit down with us, Marie, to oblige me,' said Madame Voss.

'I had rather not, aunt. It is foolish to sit at supper and not eat. I have
taken my supper already.' Then she moved away, and hovered round
the two strangers at the end of the room. After supper Michel Voss and
the young man--Adrian Urmand by name--lit their cigars and seated
themselves on a bench outside the front door. 'Have you never said a
word to her?' said Michel.
'Well;--a word; yes.'
'But you have not asked her--; you know what I mean;--asked her
whether she could love you.'
'Well,--yes. I have said as much as that, but I have never got an answer.
And when I did ask her, she merely left me. She is not much given to
talking.'
'She will not make the worse wife, my friend, because she is not much
given to such talking as that. When she is out with me on a Sunday
afternoon she has chat enough. By St. James, she'll talk for two hours
without stopping when I'm so out of breath with the hill that I haven't a
word.'
'I don't doubt she can talk.'
'That she can; and manage a house better than any girl I ever saw. You
ask her aunt.'
'I know what her aunt thinks of her. Madame Voss says that neither you
nor she can afford to part with her.'
Michel Voss was silent for a moment. It was dusk, and no one could
see him as he brushed a tear from each eye with the back of his hand.
'I'll tell you what, Urmand,--it will break my heart to lose her. Do you
see how she comes to me and comforts me? But if it broke my heart,
and broke the house too, I would not keep her here. It isn't fit. If you
like her, and she can like you, it will be a good match for her. You have
my leave to ask her. She brought nothing here, but she has been a good
girl, a very good girl, and she will not leave the house empty-handed.'

Adrian Urmand was a linen-buyer from Basle, and was known to have
a good share in a good business. He was a handsome young man too,
though rather small, and perhaps a little too apt to wear rings on his
fingers and to show jewelry on his shirt-front and about his waistcoat.
So at least said some of the young people of Granpere, where rings and
gold studs are not so common as they are at Basle. But he was one who
understood his business, and did not neglect it; he had money too; and
was therefore such a young man that Michel Voss felt that he might