Nevertheless, Marie remained silent, she dared not give her answer, but looked at them both with her big soft eyes, which, like their own, were full of tears.
And it was Guillaume who, with sudden inspiration, ran to the little staircase conducting to the rooms overhead, and called: "Mere-Grand! Mere-Grand! Come down at once, you are wanted." Then, as soon as she was there, looking slim and pale in her black gown, and showing the wise air of a queen-mother whom all obeyed, he said: "Tell these two children that they can do nothing better than marry one another.

Tell them that we have talked it over, you and I, and that it is your desire, your will that they should do so." She quietly nodded her assent, and then said: "That is true, it will be by far the most sensible course." Thereupon Marie flung herself into her arms, consenting, yielding to the superior forces, the powers of life, that had thus changed the course of her existence.

Guillaume immediately desired that the date of the wedding should be fixed, and accommodation provided for the young couple in the rooms overhead.

And as Pierre glanced at him with some remaining anxiety and spoke of travelling, for he feared that his wound was not yet healed, and that their presence might bring him suffering, Guillaume responded: "No, no, I mean to keep you.

If I'm marrying you, it is to have you both here.