as a sort of armour around her, and that
it would be wiser to go straight to work and not talk further to-day.

She went directly from the _parc_ to catch her train at five
o'clock--and I was wheeled back to the hotel.

And now I have the evening alone before me--but the day is distinctly a
step onward in the friendship line.

VIII

I spent a memorable day with Miss Sharp in the _parc_ yesterday. I do
not even remember what I did in the intermediate time--it seems of so
little importance--but this Thursday will always stand out as a landmark
of our acquaintance.

We drove in a fiacre to the Little Trianon after she arrived, with
Burton on the box to help me out, and then I walked with my crutch to a
delicious spot I know, rather near the grotto, and yet with a view of
the house--I was determined I would entice her to talk as much as I
could, and began very cautiously so as not to provoke her to suggest
work.

"Have you ever read that wonderful story called 'An Adventure'--The two
old ladies seeing Marie Antoinette and some other ghosts here?"

"No."

So I told her about it, and how they had accounted for it.

"I expect it was true," she said.

"You believe in ghosts then?"

"Some ghosts."

"I wish I did--then I should know that there is a beyond--."

I felt she was looking surprised.

"But of course there is a beyond--we have all been there many times
during our evolution, after each life."

"That is what I want to know about--that theory of reincarnation," I
responded eagerly--"can you tell me?"

"I could get you a book about it--."

"I would much rather hear it personally explained--the merest
outline,--please tell me, it might help me not to be such a rotter--."

She looked away toward the giant trees, her mouth had a slightly sad
expression, I could have torn those glasses off her blue eyes!

"We came up through the animal group soul--and finally were re-born
individualized, into man--and from then onward the life on this earth is
but a school for us to learn experience in, to prepare us eventually for
higher spheres. When we advance far enough we need not be re-born
again--."

"Yes--as a theory--I follow that--."

She went on--

"Everything is _cause_ and _effect_--We draw the result of every action
we commit, good or bad--and sometimes it is not until the next re-birth
we pay for the bad ones, or receive the result of the good ones--."

"Is that why then that I am a cripple a