y mean. Your grandfather Blair carried you
out to their gate once to see a hand-organ man and his monkey. You
were too pleased for anything, and when the man finally moved away
your grandfather told you, 'Say good-by to the monkey, Alexina.'"

Truth to tell, Molly and Charlotte seemed to have had a fine time in
the absence of their two youthful monitors. Charlotte was as wax in
the naughty Molly's hands. Even now, with Alexina on the scene, Molly
proceeded to put Mrs. Leroy up to a thing that never would have
entered that innocent soul's head.

Charlotte went mysteriously to town one morning, Peter in his best
clothes driving her, and came back beaming.

"I've asked some of the Aden young people out for the evening before
you go," she told Alexina. "The halls and the parlours are so big, you
can dance."

Charlotte beamed and Molly looked innocent. Alexina gazed at Mrs.
Leroy dismayed. What would the Captain, what would King William think?
It would never occur to Mrs. Leroy until afterward that she could not
afford such a thing.

"I think we ought to do it together," said Alexina privately to her.
"Molly and I owe Aden some return."

Charlotte was made to see it. Had Willy come along, she would have
seen it as speedily after his will, be that what it might.

Whatever the Captain thought, he sat unmoved in the midst of the
deluge of water and mopping that suddenly swept about him on the
porch. There must have been Dutch in Charlotte somewhere, for
hospitality with her meant excess of cleaning.

It was a miserable week altogether to Alexina. The days dragged
through to their nights, and the nights to morning. She had never
known so hateful a time. She hated the grove, where thousands of
oranges, gathered into piles, lay rotting, and where the smiling
trees, wherever their buds had escaped injury, were putting out
scattered blooms; she hated the lake, and the Cherokee roses in bloom,
she hated the crepe myrtles and the camelias in the yard. To walk
meant wading through sand; there was nothing in town to make the drive
worth while. The shame, the sting was in everything that was
beautiful. That she should care!

Mr. Jonas and Mr. Henderson drove out one evening, Mr. Jonas to talk
over matters with the Captain. Alexina wandered off by herself.

Presently she heard Mrs. Leroy calling softly. "It's your mother," she
told Alexina in a whisper, as the girl came back to the house. "I
don't believe Mr. Henderson is goo