"Yes," said Guy with emphatic assurance in his tone, "I am living for that day too. I don't think anything in this whole wide world would make me forgo my claim. But I shall want you to myself. Will you come over to America with me for a few weeks? I should like to show you my mother's old home in Virginia. One of her aunts, an old lady of eighty years, is living there in old-fashioned state. We will get Mathilde to stay on here till we return." "I will go anywhere with you," Adrienne whispered. And then Pierre came in to extinguish the candelabra, and she said good night in a very matter of fact way and went off to bed. CHAPTER XVII WED "WELL, Uncle Derrick, here I am, and how well you are looking. Quite ten years younger!" Adrienne had arrived at her country station, and, as usual, her uncle was there to meet her. He had violets in his buttonhole, and his whole appearance was alert and smart. "I have only been home for a few days," he said, as he drew her hand into his arm and walked her out of the station into the road to the car which was waiting. He was driving himself; and when they were once off, he turned to her in a kind of shamefaced way. "We couldn't wait. I didn't tell you, as it might have hurried you back before you were ready to come, but we've had a quiet week in the New Forest together, and now I've brought her home." Adrienne drew a long breath, then she said: "I'm so glad. You're such a dear that I love to think that you're going to have a little happiness on your own at last." But for a moment blank dismay filled her heart. She had so counted on having a cosy time alone with her uncle before her marriage. Resolutely she packed her disappointment away out of sight. "Were you surprised at my news?" she asked him. "Rather. You started off with a dislike to him. I am not sure that I think him good enough for you. Not a patch on Godfrey." "Oh, oh! I must protest! Godfrey is a dear, but he's always the same, always serene and good and straight, and never perturbed or excited. He always would assent to everything I suggested, and we should have lived a placid level life, knowing each other through and through and never discovering anything more of each other. Now Guy is different. He is masterful, and reserved and passionately tender at times, and at other times impervious to coaxing or persuasion, and sternly obdurate. He has more in him than ever he lets escape, and I'm always discovering fresh traits in his character." "I think," said the Admiral slowly, "that I would rather know anyone through and through, than be in ignorance of how they might act on certain occasions." "Oh, but he would be always right. I know he would." "He is perfect in your eyes. That makes a good beginning. I want to have a talk with him about the future. Has he enough income to keep you comfortably in that old Château?"