Bless her! She might have started next morning if she had been set upon the matter! That is, so far as Keller and Linn were concerned. Afterwards while we were walking home Hugh looked edgeways at me. "Angus," said he gravely, "I should not like to have your responsibility. Are you sure that she will take to the family at Chateau Schneider? Or they to her? We are rather a handful, you know, and she--well, she is not exactly ordinary." "As to that I don't know," I said sharply, for I did not like to hear my darling project decried or even suspected, "and what is more, I don't care. The garden and the Garden Cottage at Gobelet are large enough and safe enough." "Pardon," he retorted, more unpleasantly than he had ever spoken to me. "I was under the impression that Alida was going to Aramon for society." "Well, and suppose she finds it without crossing the bridge--what then?" "Oh, nothing," he said, "I was only considering what you meant to do for yourself in the way of a career!" CHAPTER XIX KELLER BEY COMES TO ARAMON Keller Bey came to Aramon ten days after the time of our return. Before letting us go Alida decided that I must write her every day, and Hugh once a week. She had never seen a line from either, but she judged from our faculty of conversation--often quite a false test, as witness Cowper and Gray. For the details of that first visit of Keller to Aramon I must have recourse to the daily letters which I wrote at that time to Alida. _Monday, February_--, 1871. "NOBLE AND SWEET,-- "The Bey came last night into the station of Aramon-les-Ateliers, where Hugh and I met him. A manifestation of the Internationale was crowding the platform to welcome some delegate who was to address the companions in their hall. I could see the old soldier quiver at the sight of the red flags they carried. If the St. Andre diligence had not been waiting at the station portico, I hardly think we could have persuaded him to go on. Any opposition to the tricolour, which he hates with the hatred of an old Atlas fighter, appears to excite him. We shall have trouble with him at Aramon if events thicken as they seem to be doing. "But for the time being, everything marched as to music. The Bey was installed beside me, and Hugh very considerately took his leave. I am sending him over a message to-day telling him how matters fell out. The view from the bridge enchanted Keller. Aramon the Elder was rich with sunset glow--'a rose-red city half as old as time,' with the tall Montmorency keep standing up from its rock as firm and proud as the day it was finished five centuries ago.