rd
Janet's pretenses, and "buy" was so exactly the word to use with these
people to whom money was the paramount consideration, the thought behind
every other thought, the feeling behind every other feeling, the
mainspring of their lives, the mainstay of all the fictions of their
aristocracy.

"That depends on father," replied Janet. "Mother has gone to talk to him
about it."

"I'm sure your father won't stand between you and happiness," said
Adelaide.

"But he doesn't understand these aristocratic people," replied she. "Of
course, if it depended upon Aristide and me, we should be married without
consulting anybody. But he can't legally marry without his father's
consent, and his father naturally wants proper settlements. It's a cruel
law, don't you think?"

Adelaide thought not; she thought it, on the contrary, an admirable
device to "save the face" of a mercenary lover posing as a sentimentalist
and money-spurner. But she merely said, "I think it's most
characteristic, most aristocratic." She knew Janet, how shrewd she was,
how thoroughly she understood the "coarse side of life." She added, "And
your father'll come round."

"I wish I could believe it," sighed Janet. "The Saint Berthes have an
exaggerated notion of papa's wealth. Besides, they need a good deal. They
were robbed horribly by those dreadful revolutionists. They used to own
all this part of the country. All these people round here with their
little farms were once the peasants of Aristide's ancestors. Now--even
this chateau has a mortgage on it. I couldn't keep back the tears, while
Aristide was telling me."

Adelaide thought of Charles Whitney listening to that same recital, and
almost laughed. "Well, I feel sure it will turn out all right," she said.
"Your mother'll see to that. And I believe you'll be very, very happy."
Theatricals in private life was Janet's passion--why should she not be
happy? Frenchmen were famous for their politeness and consideration to
their wives; Aristide would never let her see or feel that she bored him,
that her reverence for the things he was too intelligent and modern not
to despise appealed to him only through his sense of humor. Janet would
push her shrewd, soulful way into social leadership, would bring her
children up to be more aristocratic than the children of the oldest
aristocrats.

Adelaide smiled as she pictured it all--smiled, yet sighed. She was not
under Janet's fixed and unshakable delusions. She sa