That night there was great news at the _château_. John was coming. The wedding was to be at Easter; but he could not remain so long without visiting his bride; and with him was coming a relation, a gentleman. “Listen, Hélène,” said Cécile--“we have no secrets for you. This gentleman, Monsieur Charles, is _très comme il faut_. I cannot say it in English. What words are there in English that say all that? He is not very rich; but mamma seeks to marry Thérèse, and in every other respect he is everything we could desire. John has often spoken of it. He has been in India, like so many of your young Englishmen. But if Thérèse and he please to each other, why should he go back? John says that if some one who is clever, a true man of affairs, an Englishman, were to manage our woods, we should be twice more rich; and if he pleases to Thérèse! Hush! it is a little family arrangement; nothing is to be said of it. But we watch for the eventualities. You will open your English eyes, _chère petite_, and you will give me your opinion upon him for Thérèse.” Helen felt a little chill at her heart; she could not tell why. A Monsieur Charles who had been in India! No doubt there were hundreds of them in England. “But,” she said--and probably in any case she would have objected, for she had begun to be very British since she lived in France--“but an Englishman does not understand family arrangements like this. Does he know that he is coming for Thérèse?” “That is what we cannot tell. We know that the English are very peculiar--very strange in their ideas.” “I think it is the French who are strange in their ideas,” said Helen, with all the fervour of English prejudice. She was almost pleased to think that if M. Charles was a party to any such arrangement he was not at all so _comme il faut_ as Cécile thought. “A _right_ Englishman would not do it. Come to be looked at, as if he were applying for a situation as a servant!” Helen said to herself indignantly, that these were not English ways. She did not enjoy the evening. She was not herself. She contradicted everybody, even Madame la Comtesse. What was the matter with her? “_Tiens_” said the Comtesse, “these English are so droll; it does not please them to meet each other. We others, we love our compatriots. When you are in England it is a _fête_ to see a Frenchman. But the English are different; they will not encounter each other if they can help it. You will see that Djohn will be equally discontented to hear that there is an English family at Latour.” This appeared both to Cécile and Thérèse a very likely solution of the question.