Also it deals with another matter more personal to himself, namely, his courtship of and marriage to his first wife, Marie Marais.
Of this Marie I never heard him speak, save once.

I remember that on a certain occasion--it was that of a garden fete for a local charity--I was standing by Quatermain when someone introduced to him a young girl who was staying in the neighborhood and had distinguished herself by singing very prettily at the fete.

Her surname I forget, but her Christian name was Marie.

He started when he heard it, and asked if she were French.

The young lady answered No, but only of French extraction through her grandmother, who also was called Marie.
"Indeed ?" he said.