rinne and my Aunt Yvonne, all four together in the garden."

"Yes, yet not in this li'l' garden in the front, but in the large, far
back from the house, in the h-arbor of 'oneysuckle and by the side of the
li'l' lake, eh?" So prompted madame.

"Assuredly," said the smiling girl; "not in the front, where is no room
for a place to sit down!"

Chester's acceptance was eager. Then once more the batten gate closed
and the key grated between him and Aline--marvellous, marvellous Aline
Chapdelaine.

XIX

The sunbeams of a tedious Sabbath began noticeably to slant.

For two days, night, morning, noon, and afternoon, Geoffry Chester had
silently speculated on what he was to see, hear, and otherwise experience
when, as early as he might in keeping with the Chapdelaine dignity and
his, he should pull the tiny brass bell-knob on their tall gate-post.

Chapdelaine! Impressive, patrician title. Impressive too those
baptismal names; implying a refinement invincible in the vale of
adversity. Killing time up one street and down another--Rampart,
Ursuline, Burgundy--he pictured personalities to fit them: for Corinne a
presence stately in advanced years and preserved beauty; for Yvonne a
fragile form suggestive of mother-o'-pearl, of antique lace. Knowledge
of Aline justified such inferences--within bounds. With other charms she
had all these, and must have got them from ancestral sources as truly
Mlle. Corinne's and Mlle. Yvonne's as hers.

"Oh, of course," he pondered, "there are contrary possibilities. They
may easily fall short, far short, of her, in outer graces, and show their
kinship only in a reflection of her inner fineness. They may be no more
surprising than those dear old De l'Isles, or the Prieurs, or than Mrs.
Thorndyke-Smith. So let it be! Aline----"

"Aline-Aline!" alarmingly echoed his heart.

"Aline is enough." Enough? Alas, too much! He felt himself far too
forthpushing in--he would not confess more--a solicitude for her which he
could not stifle; an inextinguishable wish to disentangle her from the
officious care of those by whom she was surrounded--encumbered. "I've no
right to this state of mind," he thought; "none." He reached the gate.
He rang.

A footfall of daintiest lightness came running! ["Aline-Aline!"] So
might Allegro have tripped it. The key rasped round, ["Aline-Aline!"]
the portal drew in, and he found himself getting his first front view of
Cupid, the small black sa