"They are quite the pleasantest relatives to own," she said with a humorous curl to her lips; "it is their wives who are sometimes difficult, but you have never experienced that." "No," Adrienne owned; "though at times I have had scares that way. Uncle Tom is all right, but Uncle Derrick has two or three women friends who occasionally sweep down upon us. There is a certain widow who used to live in Malta, and whom he used to visit when he was at sea. She's a nice woman, but I believe on her side it's little more than just old friendship." "Men ought to marry," Miss Preston said emphatically. Then they talked of the country they were in, and its customs. Adrienne came home to her aunt feeling that she had made a friend, and strangely enough her aunt began to be interested in the stranger. "Ask her to tea one afternoon. I should like to make her acquaintance if she's a gentlewoman. I thought she and her brother were a pair of these Bohemian artists. I've seen them going about in sandals, hatless and with knapsacks across their backs, the women as tanned and dusty and unkempt as the men." So Miss Preston came to tea, and the Countess liked her, and asked her to come again. Adrienne went out walks with her, but in all her talks Miss Preston never mentioned her brother or the Count. One day, as they were sitting in the woods together, enjoying the cool shade on a very sunny morning, Adrienne said suddenly to her friend: "Do you believe that our lives are ordered and planned for us by God? Little Agatha says they are." "She thinks there is an original groove or place which we may circumvent," said Miss Preston. "For a little French peasant girl, she has a wonderful knowledge of the world and its ways." "Yes, hasn't she? I think I'm talking to a sage or a philosopher when I'm with her, but really she's something higher altogether. I think what she would say is that if we have right relations with God, He plans for us. It's very puzzling. Practically I am beginning to be torn into two. I want to go back and take up my life at home again, and yet I want to stay here. The old Château and the village have crept into my life. I want to see Aunt Cecily safely through her difficulties. I know she has told you about them. She tells every one, so I am not betraying her confidence. I keep wondering what I am to do. And I am not sure enough of my right relationship to God to know if He will guide me. I suppose He guides by circumstances?" Miss Preston smiled at Adrienne's anxious face. "Don't make me your Father Confessor. I'm an ignoramus like yourself over religious doctrine and experience. But I'd give all I possess to have little Agatha's faith and joy. I believe in her, ergo I believe in her God." "So do I," Adrienne said thoughtfully; "I've never read my Bible so much as since I've known her, and it is explaining things to me. But I'm a long way off yet from where I want to be."