None of the family were then about the place, and he could, therefore, go into the stable and ask a question or two of the man who came to meet him.

His father, the man told him, had gone up early to the wood-cutting, and would not probably return till the afternoon.
Madame Voss was no doubt inside, as was also Marie Bromar.

Then the man commenced an elaborate account of the betrothals.

There never had been at Granpere any marriage that had been half so important as would be this marriage; no lover coming thither had ever been blessed with so beautiful and discreet a maiden, and no maiden of Granpere had ever before had at her feet a lover at the same time so good-looking, so wealthy, so sagacious, and so good-tempered.

The man declared that Adrian was the luckiest fellow in the world in finding such a wife, but his enthusiasm rose to the highest pitch when he spoke of Marie's luck in finding such a husband.