terial. I shall tell your brother that I
consider it settled. It will be good for Sophie and Lucie, too, to have
the stimulus of a companion."

"You are not afraid that--You know my brother's very strong opinions?"

"Do you think a child of twelve is likely to make converts?" she said,
with an amused smile. "No, cousin. The influence will be the other way,
but your brother will not be foolish enough, I hope, to consider that a
danger."

Urbain shook his head gently: he would answer for nothing. He murmured,
"A charming plan! The best thing that could happen to the child."

"A pity, too," said Madame de Sainfoy, looking out of the window, "that
she should grow up without any young companions but your son. Where are
they going now?"

"I don't know," said Urbain.

For a moment they watched silently, while Angelot and Henriette left the
others in the garden, and walked away together, turning towards the
chateau, and then disappearing behind a clump of trees.

"I know," said the Comtesse. "I told Herve something of this plan of
mine, and he approved highly: he has an old family affection for your
brother. He is sending the young people to find Sophie and Lucie; they
are out walking in the wood with Mademoiselle--Helene is reading Italian
in her own room."

She seemed to add this as an after-thought, and the faintest smile
curled Monsieur Urbain's lips as he heard her. "No danger, dear
Comtesse," he felt inclined to say. "My boy's heart is in the woods and
fields--and he is discreet, too. You might even trust him for five
minutes with that beautiful, silent girl of yours."

Had Madame de Sainfoy made some miscalculation as to her daughter's
hours of study? or was it Helene's own mistake? or had the sunshine and
the waving woods, the barking of dogs, the chattering of workmen, all
the flood of new life outside old Lancilly, made it impossible to sit
reading in a chilly, thick-walled room and tempted the girl irresistibly
to break her mother's strict rules. However it may have happened--when
Angelot and Riette, laughing and talking, entered the wood beyond the
chateau, not only square Sophie and tall Lucie and their fat little
governess, but Mademoiselle Helene herself, were found wandering along
the soft path, through the glimmering maze of green flicked with gold.

Sophie and Lucie were good-natured girls, enchanted to see the new
little cousin. They admired her dark eyes, the delicate smallness of her
frame, a co