"My head is aching so much, I must lay down my pen. But now to be practical. A very great friend of mine, Madame de Nicholas, is leaving London on the fifteenth of this month. That will be three days after you receive this letter. Lose no time but wire at once to her at the Hotel Grosvenor, and tell her you will meet her at Victoria Station and travel here with her. "And will you bring me from the Army and Navy Stores some of this printed note-paper and envelopes to match. I always get mine there. "Tell your uncles it is imperative that I have a niece with me in my present delicate health. I cannot be left alone any longer. "Your affectionate Aunt, "CECILY." Godfrey read this letter through in silence, and gave a low whistle as he handed it back to her. "Well," said Adrienne, looking at him with anxious eyes, "don't you think it is a shame of her to write to me like that?" "I suppose you know her better than I do. I only saw her once when she came to stay with you two years ago, and brought her rather pretty daughter with her." "Yes, that was when Mathilde told me she would marry anyone—a hunchback, or a dwarf, or a man who broke stones in the road—to get away from home. She told me her mother really wanted a white slave to live with her. So, you see, Godfrey, I know what would be in store for me if I went." "It's a letter of an unhappy woman," said Godfrey, looking at her with his clear blue eyes; "and she seems to want you badly." "Now don't tell me I ought to go. My duty is to remain in that state of life in which God has called me. That is in the catechism of my youth. I am happy where I am. Why should I deliberately choose to leave my present life for one in which I know I should be miserable?" "Is our own happiness the chief aim in our lives?" said the young man slowly. "And do we really know what makes our happiness? I rather doubt it. I thought at one time when I gave up going into the Church that I was giving up my happiness, but I found I was not." Adrienne looked at him thoughtfully. She knew that from his boyhood Godfrey's whole aim had been to take Holy Orders. He was at Oxford when his eldest brother had died. Things were not going smoothly at home. His father had died when his sons were quite children. His mother knew nothing of business and had been for many years in the hands of a dishonest agent; the estate was in a very bad way when the eldest boy Ernest came into his property. He manfully put his shoulder to the wheel, dismissed the agent and worked the estate himself, but just at a critical stage, he was struck down by pneumonia and died after a few days' illness. Lady Sutherland summoned Godfrey home, and told him it was his duty to come back and take his brother's place.