‘Ruin, indeed!’ exclaimed Archie as he drew Clarice to him. ‘I don’t in the least care who looks upon me as a ruin, so long as this sweet flower clings to me and twines its tendrils round my heart!’ And with that he stooped and kissed the fair young face that was gazing so lovingly into his own. ‘Ah—boys and girls—girls and boys—you are the same all the world over,’ said Madame De Vigne with a sigh. ‘And you won’t be able to go to the picnic to-morrow,’ remarked Clarice plaintively. Nanette appeared. ‘The carriage is at the door, sir. The driver says he has only just time to catch the train.’ ‘I’m going to the station, dear, to see Archie off,’ said Clarice to her sister. ‘Good-bye—for a little while,’ said Archie, as he took Madame De Vigne’s hand. ‘The moment I have any news, you shall hear from me; and in any case, you will see me back before we are many days older.’ ‘Good-bye—and good-bye. Above all things, don’t forget the love and obedience you owe your father, and remember—the moment you choose to claim your freedom, it is yours.’ ‘Ah, dear Madame De Vigne’—— She interrupted him with a slight gesture of her hand. ‘Do not think me hard—do not think me unkind. I have to remember that I am this girl’s sister and mother in one.’ ‘But’—— ‘Not another word.’ She took his head in both her hands and drew it towards her, and kissed him on the forehead. ‘Bon voyage! Dieu vous protège. The prayers of two women will go with you.’ There was a tear in Archie’s eye as he turned away. Nanette was standing by the open door. A moment later, and the young people were gone. Madame De Vigne stepped out into the veranda and waved her handkerchief as the carriage drove off. ‘He will marry her whether Sir William gives his consent or not,’ she mused. ‘He is in youth’s glad spring-tide, when the world is full of sunshine, and the dragons that beset the ways of life seem put there only to be fought and overcome. Well—let me but see my darling’s happiness assured, and I think that I can bear without murmuring whatever Fate may have in store for myself.’ She stepped back into the room, and as she did so, Nanette opened the door once more and announced—‘Colonel Woodruffe.’ A slight tremor shook Madame De Vigne from head to foot. She drew a long breath, and advanced a step or two to meet the colonel as he entered the room. ‘I told you that I should come,’ said Colonel Woodruffe, with a rich glow on his face as he went forward and held out his hand. ‘And you are here,’ answered Madame De Vigne, who had suddenly turned very pale. ‘Did you not expect me?’ ‘Yes,’ she answered, as for a moment she looked him full in the eyes. She sat down on an ottoman, and the colonel drew up a chair a little distance away. He was a tall, well-built, soldier-like man, some thirty-eight or forty years old. ‘You know the purpose that has brought me?’ he asked. ‘I have not forgotten.’