I think he is at supper now.' The place of honour at the top of the table at the Colmar inn was not in these days assumed by Madame Faragon.

She had, alas, become too stout to do so with either grace or comfort, and always took her meals, as she always lived, in the little room downstairs, from which she could see, through the apertures of two doors, all who came in and all who went out by the chief entrance of the hotel.
Nor had George usurped the place.

It had now happened at Colmar, as it has come to pass at most hotels, that the public table is no longer the table-d'hote.

The end chair was occupied by a stout, dark man, with a bald head and black beard, who was proudly filling a place different from that of his neighbours, and who would probably have gone over to the Hotel de l'Imperatrice had anybody disturbed him.

On the present occasion George seated himself next to the lad, and they were soon discussing all the news from Granpere.
'And how is Marie Bromar ?' George asked at last.
'You have heard about her, of course,' said Edmond Greisse.
'Heard what ?' 'She is going to be married.' 'Minnie Bromar to be married?
And to whom ?' Edmond at once understood that his news was regarded as being important, and made the most of it.
'O dear, yes.