"Oh, Renée, you are so good, you deserve to be rewarded with every happiness." "Thank you so much, Céleste, and look here, dear, when we are married you must come and stay weeks and weeks with us, won't you?" "That would be just too lovely altogether. But you have not told me why you locked the door, and why you were sobbing and crying. Was it for joy?" "No, dear, not for joy, but for grief," answered Renée. "For grief! Whatever do you mean?" and as she spoke, Céleste's eyes fairly stood out with astonishment. "You are talking in riddles. What do you mean? surely you are not sorry that you accepted him?" "Oh, you dear little goose, of course not, it was only to-day that Henri and I confessed our love for each other. You have not seen me crying to-day, have you?" "No, certainly not, but I want to know all about yesterday's trouble." "What an inquisitive little girl it is," said Renée smiling. "Do please tell me," pleaded Céleste, "I am dying to find out, and you know how faithfully I can keep a secret." Céleste's curiosity amounted almost to a mania, and this fencing on the part of Renée made the young girl fairly boil over with eagerness to probe what seemed to her some dreadful mystery. "So can I keep a secret," replied Renée, half sadly. "But please, chérie, do not ask me any more questions. I dare not tell. And, Céleste dearie, please, please, promise me that you will not tell anybody about my engagement. You cannot understand what terrible harm it might do me if it were known. It must be kept a dead secret at present, you do not know how much I have suffered, and how frightened I am sometimes of my life and Henri's. Oh dear, oh dear, it is really too dreadful," and she threw her arms around Céleste and sobbed again. "Renée, ma mie, it is terrible to see you like this, what can the mystery be? I must know," and in her excitement she seized her sister's hands, and pulled the girl to her and shook her. "No, Céleste dearest," sobbed Renée, "help me with your love and sympathy to bear it, but do not ask me any more. Hush, I hear someone coming, remember not a word to anyone," and she rushed off into her own room.