His father had turned him out of the house, and Marie had told him as he went that she would never marry him if her uncle disapproved it.
Slight as her word had been on that morning of his departure, it had rankled in his bosom, and made him angry with her through a whole twelvemonth.

And yet he had believed that she would be true to him! He went out in the evening when it was dusk and walked round and round the public garden of Colmar, thinking of the news which he had heard--the public garden, in which stands the statue of General Rapp.

It was a terrible blow to him.

Though he had remained a whole year in Colmar without seeing Marie, or hearing of her, without hardly ever having had her name upon his lips, without even having once assured himself during the whole time that the happiness of his life would depend on the girl's constancy to him,--now that he heard that she was to be married to another man, he was torn to pieces by anger and regret.

He had sworn to love her, and had never even spoken a word of tenderness to another girl.