Did it prove to be true, then all was heavenly clear. His new life would be what we all sigh that our lives were not--no blind groping in the night of ignorance and doubt, but the angelic victory over the hosts of darkness. He was nineteen and unburdened of his sin, she seventeen and sinless. They would marry. One marriage such as theirs might at the last be enough to rehabilitate the despairing world. Instead of being in his own person a public peril he might be society's hope and stay. And--I found my excitement quickening--so far all was well. "_Entrez!_" the bright voice that might have been silent for ever had called, and I had entered to find him humming over a paint-box. Surely he knew about himself if anybody did---- And he thought he could keep on an even keel--- There broke in on my musing the sudden sound of voices. The Airds were returning from their walk. Madge tapped at the window, the catch of which I had turned, and she and Alec entered. Jennie walked straight past, and I heard her step in the hall, then on the stairs. Apparently she was going straight to bed. "Then if he's English what the devil does he wear those clothes for?" Alec demanded as he closed the window again. "_Mon ami_, as he hasn't consulted me about his clothes I don't know." "Where did Jennie pick him up?" "Don't speak as if he was a germ. And do make a _tee_-ny effort to be a little less insular, my dear. 'When the Lord said all men He included me.'" "We aren't in heaven. We're in Dinard." "Among the world, the flesh and the French," said Madge cheerfully. "Why shouldn't he speak good French instead of your eternal '_Donnez-moi_' and '_Combien_'? Why shouldn't a thing mean something simply because it isn't in English? You'd better go home and go to Lords'.... George, you've been asleep!" If I had I was very far from being asleep now. If my ears told me truly, since leaving Ker Annic the Airds had met, and had spoken to, Derwent Rose. Alec crossed to the fireplace, lifted the shutter, knocked out his pipe, and took up the running again. "And what on earth made Jennie speak to him in French?" "Jennie's quite right to practise her French." "You don't practise French on a fellow who says he's an Englishman--porter's blouse or no porter's blouse. I can hardly imagine she spoke to him without knowing something about him." "As you and I were there, very likely not," said Madge dryly. "Anyway I marched Jennie on ahead," Alec growled. "Confounded mixed foreign company--wish we'd never come here----"