and,
because they belonged to two such famous families, became now a part of
the gay little set ruled by the caprices of Queen Marie Antoinette. That
first winter after their marriage the young couple went constantly to
balls and late suppers, to the opera and the play,--were in fact in a
constant whirl of amusement, which had the charm of novelty to them
both, and Lafayette, who had always, even as a boy, been a favourite at
Court, was still popular and still called "The big boy with the red
hair." He was always awkward, and conspicuous for his height, as well as
his clumsiness, and danced as badly as Adrienne did well, which
mortified him greatly, having discovered which, Queen Marie Antoinette
would often in a spirit of mischief order him to appear on the floor,
and then tease him mercilessly about his awkwardness. He was different
too in many ways from the courtiers with whom he was thrown, and his
dominant passion even then, at nineteen, was the ambition of a true
patriot, only waiting to be turned into its fitting channel.

Both he and Adrienne enjoyed the gaiety and lack of responsibility of
those first months of their married life, but more than the frivolity,
Adrienne enjoyed sitting at home with her husband and friends while
they discussed great national affairs, and later she loved best to slip
upstairs and care for the little daughter who came to be her especial
joy,--and so, absorbed in a variety of interests, the first two years of
Madame Adrienne's married life slipped away, and at sixteen we find her
as pretty and as slender as ever, but with a deeper tenderness and
gravity in her brown eyes.

At the Court of Versailles an honoured guest from the American Colonies
was being entertained,--a homely, unpolished, reserved man, named
Benjamin Franklin. He was a man with a mission: America must be a free
country, and France must help her in the struggle, not only with men,
but with money. This was the burden of his plea and it thrilled all
Paris. The plain brusque American became the fad of the hour. Shops
displayed canes, scarfs, hats--even a stove "a la Franklin," and he bore
away with him not only an immense gift, but also a large loan, neither
of which impoverished France could afford to give.

Foremost among those whom he inflamed in the cause of liberty was young
Lafayette, and Adrienne noted with keen alarm his growing indifference
to all other topics except that one which was absorbing his interest,