auty of bared neck and tinted face, of
lowered lids and slow, faint smile,--oh, she was genuine fine lady, if she
was not quite Evelyn! A breeze blowing through the open windows stirred
their gay hangings of flowered cotton; the black girl sat in a corner and
sewed; the supple fingers of the hairdresser went in and out of the heavy
hair; roses in a deep blue bowl made the room smell like a garden. Haward
sighed, so pleasant was it to sit quietly in this cool chamber, after the
glare and wavering of the world without. "My Lord of Peterborough is
magnificent at compliments," he said kindly, "but 'twould be a jeweled
speech indeed that outdid your deserving, Evelyn. Come, now, wear the
blue! I will find you white roses; you shall wear them for a breast knot,
and in the minuet return me one again."

Evelyn waved her fan. "I dance the minuet with Mr. Lee." Her tone was
still sweetly languid, her manner most indifferent. The thick and glossy
tress that, drawn forward, was to ripple over white neck and bosom was too
loosely curled. She regarded it in the mirror with an anxious frown, then
spoke of it to the hairdresser.

Haward, smiling, watched her with heavy-lidded eyes. "Mr. Lee is a
fortunate gentleman," he said. "I may gain the rose, perhaps, in the
country dance?"

"That is better," remarked the lady, surveying with satisfaction the
new-curled lock. "The country dance? For that Mr. Lightfoot hath my
promise."

"It seems that I am a laggard," said Haward.

The knocker sounded below. "I am at home, Chloe," announced the mistress;
and the slave, laying aside her work, slipped from the room.

Haward played with the trifles upon the dressing table. "Wherein have I
offended, Evelyn?" he asked, at last.

The lady arched her brows, and the action made her for the moment very
like her handsome father. "Why, there is no offense!" she cried. "An old
acquaintance, a family friend! I step a minuet with Mr. Lee; I stand up
for a country dance with Mr. Lightfoot; I wear pink instead of blue, and
have lost my liking for white roses,--what is there in all this that needs
such a question? Ah, you have broken my silver chain!"

"I am clumsy to-day!" he exclaimed. "A thousand pardons!" He let the
broken toy slip from his fingers to the polished surface of the table, and
forgot that it was there. "Since Colonel Byrd (I am sorry to learn) keeps
his room with a fit of the gout, may I--an old acquaintance, a family
friend--conduct you