fit for such a one. It is proper that you should be mistress
wherever you are. It has wounded me--I don't mind saying it now--it
has wounded me to see you waiting on the sort of people that come
here.'

'I have only been too happy, uncle, in doing it.'

'That's all very well; that's all very well, my dear. But I am
older than you, and time goes quick with me. I tell you it made me
unhappy. I thought I wasn't doing my duty by you. I was beginning
to know that you ought to have a house and servants of your own.
People say that it is a great match for you; but I tell them that it
is a great match for him. Perhaps it is because you've been my own
in a way, but I don't see any girl like you round the country.'

'You shouldn't say such things to flatter me, Uncle Michel.'

'I choose to say what I please, and think what I please, about my
own girl,' he said, with his arm close wound round her. 'I say it's
a great match for Adrian Urmand, and I am quite sure that he will
not contradict me. He has had sense enough to know what sort of a
young woman will make the best wife for him, and I respect him for
it. I shall always respect Adrian Urmand because he has known
better than to take up with one of your town-bred girls, who never
learn anything except how to flaunt about with as much finery on
their backs as they can get their people to give them. He might
have had the pick of them at Basle,--or at Strasbourg either, for
the matter of that; but he has thought my girl better than them all;
and I love him for it--so I do. It was to be expected that a young
fellow with means to please himself should choose to have a good-