He was not himself at ease, he was not comfortable at heart, because he knew that Marie was avoiding him.

Though she would still stand behind his chair at supper,--when for a moment she would be still,--she did not put her hands upon his head, nor did she speak to him more than the nature of her service required.

Twice he tried to induce her to sit with them at table, as though to show that her position was altered now that she was about to become a bride; but he was altogether powerless to effect any such change as this.

No words that could have been spoken would have induced Marie to seat herself at the table, so well did she understand all that such a change in her habits would have seemed to imply.

There was now hardly one person in the supper-room of the hotel who did not instinctively understand the reason which made Michel Voss anxious that his niece should sit down, and that other reason which made her sternly refuse to comply with his request.