rough the garden, when with cries of
joy they would cling to her skirts and tell her eager stories of their
doings. And so, in happy play, in hours of education by her mother's
side, in busy days of learning all the useful arts, seldom taught in
those days to children of such high social rank, Adrienne grew to be
fourteen years old. She was a reserved, well-informed, shy girl with
great beautiful brown eyes, which grew large and dark when she was
pleased with anything, and her finely chiselled features were those of a
born aristocrat, while her good disposition was clearly visible in her
expression, which was one of winning charm.

At that time in France it was customary for parents to receive proposals
of marriage for their daughters at a very early age, sometimes even
before the proposition had any meaning to the girl herself, and so it
happened that before Adrienne D'Ayen was twelve years old, the guardian
of the young Marquis de Lafayette had begged Madame D'Ayen to give her
daughter in marriage to his ward, who was but seventeen, and often was
one of the merry party of young people who frequented the Hotel de
Noailles,--in fact Adrienne felt for him the real affection which she
might have given to a brother.

The family of the young Marquis was one of the oldest and most famous in
France, famous for "bravery in battle, wisdom in counsel, and those
principles of justice and right which they ever practised." Young
Lafayette had been left an orphan when he was eleven years old, also the
possessor of an enormous fortune, at that time, of course, in the care
of his guardian. He had been a delicate child, and not especially
bright, but always filled with a keen desire for liberty of thought and
action, and when he became old enough to choose between the only two
careers open to one of his rank, he chose to be a soldier rather than a
courtier, as life at the Court did not appeal to one of his temperament.
Notwithstanding this, being a good looking, wealthy young man, he was
always welcome at Court and made the object of marked attentions by the
young Queen and her companions. Such was the young Marquis, who for
reasons diplomatic and political his guardian wished to marry to a
daughter of Madame D'Ayen, but Madame objected, saying that she feared
his large fortune, in the hands of one so headstrong as the young
Lafayette, might not make for his own and her daughter's happiness.
However, her family and friends begged her