Adam completed his training and prepared to take over the trade. More and more Monsieur Niel deferred to Adam in the day-to-day activities of the shop. Most afternoons Monsieur Niel was on the green playing bowls or smoking a pipe at the tavern with his friends. He showed little interest in his grandchild seeing that Etienne was solely in the care of his wife. Indeed, Madame Niel withdrew from much of village life in order to devote herself to her grandchild. She called Etienne “her Aureole”, because, as she explained to anyone who would listen, she could see his halo and he was clearly one of God’s chosen ones. When Etienne began to talk, he called her “Ma Cherie”, like most everyone else in the village. She attended mass daily with Etienne in tow but beyond that lived in isolation even from the rest of her family, except for the midday meal. Here was Adam’s daily contact with the child whom he called his son. He found him winsome and it kindled in his heart a desire to have a child that was truly his own. He was now 34 years old and remembering his brother’s advice, considered how he might remarry. Once thought, action followed. He courted and won the hand of bold, attractive, Katrin Geller, the cabinetmaker’s daughter. They married in May 1605. Again, Adam exchanged rings on the steps of the church and celebrated his wedding in the inn, reminded of the past by the presence of Clemence’s five-year-old son.
For more on daily life see note 9 in:
Peasants Bowling in Village Street, a painting by David Teniers, "the Younger", (1650)
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