Audrey

Somewhat out of breath, but very happy, she looked with eager eyes from

one guardian to the other. Darden emptied and refilled his pipe,

scattering the ashes upon the book of jests. "Very good," he said briefly.

Into the thin visage of the ex-waiting-woman, who had been happier at my

Lady Squander's than in a Virginia parsonage, there crept a tightened

smile. In her way, when she was not in a passion, she was fond of Audrey;

but, in temper or out of temper, she was fonder of the fine things which

for a few days she might handle at Fair View house. And the gratitude of

the master thereof might appear in coins, or in an order on his store for

silk and lace. When, in her younger days, at Bath or in town, she had

served fine mistresses, she had been given many a guinea for carrying a

note or contriving an interview, and in changing her estate she had not

changed her code of morals. "We must oblige Mr. Haward, of course," she

said complacently. "I warrant you that I can give things an air! There's

not a parlor in this parish that does not set my teeth on edge! Now at my

Lady Squander's"--She embarked upon reminiscences of past splendor,

checked only by her husband's impatient demand for dinner.

Audrey, preparing to follow her into the kitchen, was stopped, as she

would have passed the table, by the minister's heavy hand. "The roses at

Fair View bloom early," he said, turning her about that he might better

see the red cluster in her hair. "Look you, Audrey! I wish you no great

harm, child. You mind me at times of one that I knew many years ago,

before ever I was chaplain to my Lord Squander or husband to my Lady

Squander's waiting-woman. A hunter may use a decoy, and he may also, on

the whole, prefer to keep that decoy as good as when 'twas made. Buy not

thy roses too dearly, Audrey."

To Audrey he spoke in riddles. She took from her hair the loosened buds,

and looked at them lying in her hand. "I did not buy them," she said.

"They grew in the sun on the south side of the great house, and Mr. Haward

gave them to me."