We drove in a fiacre to the Little Trianon after she arrived, with Burton on the box to help me out, and then I walked with my crutch to a delicious spot I know, rather near the grotto, and yet with a view of the house--I was determined I would entice her to talk as much as I could, and began very cautiously so as not to provoke her to suggest work. "Have you ever read that wonderful story called 'An Adventure'--The two old ladies seeing Marie Antoinette and some other ghosts here?" "No." So I told her about it, and how they had accounted for it. "I expect it was true," she said. "You believe in ghosts then?" "Some ghosts." "I wish I did--then I should know that there is a beyond--." I felt she was looking surprised. "But of course there is a beyond--we have all been there many times during our evolution, after each life." "That is what I want to know about--that theory of reincarnation," I responded eagerly--"can you tell me?" "I could get you a book about it--." "I would much rather hear it personally explained--the merest outline,--please tell me, it might help me not to be such a rotter--." She looked away toward the giant trees, her mouth had a slightly sad expression, I could have torn those glasses off her blue eyes! "We came up through the animal group soul--and finally were re-born individualized, into man--and from then onward the life on this earth is but a school for us to learn experience in, to prepare us eventually for higher spheres. When we advance far enough we need not be re-born again--." "Yes--as a theory--I follow that--." She went on-- "Everything is _cause_ and _effect_--We draw the result of every action we commit, good or bad--and sometimes it is not until the next re-birth we pay for the bad ones, or receive the result of the good ones--." "Is that why then that I am a cripple and life seems a beastly affair--?" "Of course--You drew that upon yourself by some actions in your last life--. Also it may be to teach you some lesson in the improvement of the soul--." "I don't seem to have learned anything--I believe I am rebellious all the time--." "Probably." "Miss Sharp--you could really help me if you would. Please explain to me--I will be a diligent pupil." "Perhaps you were in a position of great power the last time, and were lavish and kind to people in a way--or you would not be so rich now--but you caused suffering and relied upon yourself, not on anything divine--you must have caused much suffering, perhaps mentally even, and so you had to be re-born and be wounded--to teach you the lesson of it all;--that is called your Karma. Our Karma is what we bring on with us from life to life in the way of obligations which we must discharge--so you see it rests with each one of us not to lay up more debts to pay in the future."