I'm in an awkward position, for everything that would be interesting it
would not be proper to say, and everything I can say must be
uninteresting, for he knows almost nothing of us or of our people."

"And yet you are compelled to answer these `instructive epistles' the
moment they arrive, and he cannot wait patiently to receive your so dull
replies. That has only one meaning, my dear, and it will come when he
returns home in a few years, and your children are grown up and able to
be left. It will come. I am sure it will come!"

"If it is the right thing for me--if it is God's will--yes! it will
come, and meanwhile I am very happy. It is good of Him to have given me
such a hope in my life," said Bridgie simply; and Mademoiselle's eyes
dimmed with sudden tears. Her own nervous, restless spirit was for ever
kicking against the pricks, but she was at least honest enough to
acknowledge her shortcomings, and the example of this young girl filled
her with shame and a humble desire to follow in her footsteps.

"And I am thankful that He has let me know you. You do me good,
_cherie_. I wish to be more like you," she said humbly; and Bridgie
opened her great eyes in bewilderment.

"Like me!" she echoed incredulously. "My dear!" The dimple dipped
again, and she slipped her hand through Mademoiselle's arm and shook her
in playful remonstrance. "Don't you make fun of your hostess, or she'll
starve you for your pains. The very idea of clever, accomplished You
wanting to be like blundering Irish Me!"

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

"TO SEE THE RUINS!"

"This begins to grow exciting. The plot develops!" said Mademoiselle
gaily to herself, when the fifth day of the last week in the year was
reached, and Mr Geoffrey Hilliard made his fifth appearance on the
scene in transparently accidental-on-purpose manner. On the first day
he had been discovered assiduously pumping up the tyres of a bicycle
immediately outside the Castle gates; on the second, he was lounging
about the village street with an air of boredom which showed that he had
exhausted all the objects of interest long before the O'Shaughnessy
party passed by on their morning walk; on the third, he paid a formal
call in the afternoon and stayed a good two hours by the clock, for
which breach of etiquette he was so much concerned that he was compelled
to come again the next day to apologise, and hope the ladies were not
fatigued. Bridgie smiled polite reassurements