The Lion d’Or, only hotel in a small town in Lorraine, was owned by Michel Voss. His son George lived with him, as did his second wife and her niece Marie Bromar. Marie was a vigorous, attractive and intelligent young woman, devoted to her uncle and most efficient in the work at the inn. It was inevitable that she and George should fall in love, but Michel, feeling that each could make a more advantageous marriage, stubbornly refused his consent to their engagement. George angrily left borne to take charge of an inn in Colmar, where he remained for a year without communicating with his family. Marie, feeling that she was forsaken and urged by her uncle, became engaged to Adrian Urmand, a prosperous linenbuyer from Basle who was often at the inn. When the news of the engagement reached George he set out immediately for Granpere where his father, overjoyed at his return, consented to his marriage to Marie.