"I have not asked," said Adeline. "Mamma says he is good-looking. It appears that this scheme of uniting the families has been a project of years, though they never told me. Had my sister lived, the honour was to have fallen to her." "I hope you will be happy," observed Miss Carr. "Thank you, Mary. But you speak with hesitation." "Not as to the _wish_. The hope might be more assured if you already knew, and loved, him who is to be your husband. It is a great hazard to promise to marry one whom we have never seen." "It is the way these things are managed in France," said Adeline. "And the cause that such doubtful felicity condescends to alight on a French _mènage_," broke forth Rose, who had been temporarily silent. "The wives make it out in their intrigues, though. It is a dangerous game, Adeline. Take care." "I hope you do not consider it necessary to warn _me_ against such danger," exclaimed Adeline, the crimson flying to her cheeks. "No; for you have not a particle of the French nature about you," fearlessly returned Rose. "To you, strong in right principle, in refinement of feeling, it can bring only suffering--a yearning after what must never be." "Englishwomen do not always marry where they love," mused Adeline. "Seldom or never," answered Rose. "With them the passion is generally over. They go more into society, have opportunities of mixing freely, as girls, with the other sex, which you have not, and so the years pass, and by the time their marriage comes, the heart is at rest; its life has left it." "Then their marriage, even by your own showing, seems to be much on a par with what mine will be." "Their marriage is, Adeline, but their love is over, _yours has to come_. There lies the difficulty: and the danger." "Where did you get all these wise ideas from?" inquired Adeline, much amused. "I'm not an idiot," was Rose's answer. "And I am apt to speak freely when I feel disappointed. I thought you would be sure to marry an Englishman. You have often said so, and you admire the English so much more than you do the French. You remember that handsome Englishman, of French-marigold memory? I set it down in my mind that your destiny and his were to be linked together." "You have set many things down in your mind, Rose, that never had place out of it," retorted Adeline, with a merry laugh. "I have not seen him since that night, and probably never shall see him again." "Mademoiselle Rose Darling," exclaimed Clotilde, putting her head out at the schoolroom window. "Oh the joy!" cried Rose, as she flew away. "I know it's the Singletons." The Baron de la Chasse arrived from Paris, and was betrothed to Adeline de Castella. A small circle of friends were invited to meet him on the evening of the betrothment, and Adeline did not forget a promise she had made to invite Rose and Mary Carr.