Audrey

Now, Mistress Stagg, though much scandalized, and very certain that all

this would never do, was in her way an artist, and could see as in a

mirror what bare throat and shoulders, rich hair drawn loosely up, a touch

of rouge, a patch or two, a silken gown, might achieve for Audrey. And

after all, had not Deborah told her that the girl was Mr. Haward's ward,

not Darden's, and that though Mr. Haward came and went as he pleased, and

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

as the garb of a gay lady who might justly go to the Governor's ball.

Half frightened at her own success, Mistress Stagg hovered around her,

giving this or that final touch to her costume; but it was Haward himself

who put the roses in her hair. "A little longer, and we will walk once

more in my garden at Fair View," he said. "June shall come again for us,

and we will tread the quiet paths, my sweet, and all the roses shall bloom

again for us. There, you are crowned! Hail, Queen!"