he was ever closely connected with--in
one way _you_ would seem more natural with her--I suppose
because you are more adaptable than Roger. With him,
everybody must adapt. Will she! _Voila l'affaire!_ I should
say that the young woman would be likely to have great
influence over other people's lives, herself. If she and
Roger ever clash--! Ah, well, _advienne que pourra_, it's
done.

I gave her for a wedding present that lovely little old
daguerreotype of Roger at three years old. It was in an old
leather frame, you know, and I had it taken out and put into
a little band of steel pearls and hung on a small dark red
velvet standard. No one could fail to know him from it--I
think it is the most wonderful child portrait I ever saw. He
seems to have always had that straight, steady look. There
is a tiny curl of yellow baby hair in the back, which amused
her very much. That is the only one of him at that age, you
know--his mother gave it to me when we were engaged, and I
always kept it.

I am forgetting to tell you about our visit to the Convent,
and you must hear it. I love the old place and often go up
there to see Mary, when things grow a little too unbearable.
She is wonderful--so placid and bright, so somehow just like
herself, when you expect something different! Why did she do
it, I wonder? I was one of her best friends, and I never
knew. Her great executive ability is having its reward, they
tell me, and she is likely to be Mother Superior some day.

I had told her about Margarita and she was deeply interested
in her, though the terrible state of the child's soul
naturally alarmed her. When I told her that her
sister-in-law had never been in a church, nor seen one,
unless she had noticed those we passed in New York, she
crossed herself hastily and such a look of real, heartfelt
pain passed over her face!

Well, I got my charge safely up there, and everything
interested her tremendously from the very beginning. It was
the intermission _demi-heure_ of the morning and the girls
were all munching their _gouter_ and playing about on the
grass. I explained to her why they all wore the same black
uniform, and why the honour girls, "_les tres-biens_," wore
the broad blue sashes under their arms, and why the Sisters