was very kind to Audrey, so that Darden was sure of getting whatever the
girl asked for, yet she was a good girl, and there was no harm? For the
talk that day,--people were very idle, and given to thinking the forest
afire when there was only the least curl of smoke. And in short and
finally it was none of her business; but with the aid of a certain chest
upstairs, she knew what she could do! To the ball might go a beauty would
make Mistress Evelyn Byrd look to her laurels!

"There's the birthday dress that Madam Carter sent us only last week," she
began hesitatingly. "It's very beautiful, and a'most as good as new, and
'twould suit you to a miracle--But I vow you must not go, Audrey!... To be
sure, the damask is just the tint for you, and there are roses would
answer for your hair. But la, sir, you know 'twill never do, never in this
world."

Half an hour later, Haward rose from his chair and bowed low as to some
highborn and puissant dame. The fever that was now running high in his
veins flushed his cheek and made his eyes exceedingly bright. When he went
up to Audrey, and in graceful mockery of her sudden coming into her
kingdom, took her hand and, bending, kissed it, the picture that they made
cried out for some painter to preserve it. Her hand dropped from his
clasp, and buried itself in rich folds of flowered damask; the quick rise
and fall of her bosom stirred soft, yellowing laces, and made to flash
like diamonds some ornaments of marcasite; her face was haunting in its
pain and bewilderment and great beauty, and in the lie which her eyes gave
to the false roses beneath those homes of sadness and longing. She had no
word to say, she was "only Audrey," and she could not understand. But she
wished to do his bidding, and so, when he cried out upon her melancholy,
and asked her if 'twere indeed a Sunday in New England instead of a
Saturday in Virginia, she smiled, and strove to put on the mind as well