ness than those of the State of
Harpeth, who had come from many small cities near to Hayesville at an
invitation of very careful selection for their beauty by my Buzz.

"Let's give him a genuine dazzle," he had remarked while making a list
for the sending of the cards.

And most beautiful of all those beautiful _grande dames_ was that
Madam Patricia Whitworth, who, with her husband, stood at the side of
His Excellency, the great Gouverneur Faulkner, for the receiving of
his guests. Her eyes of the blue flowers set in the snow of crystals
were in a gleaming and the costume that she wore was but a few wisps
of gossamer used for the revealing of her radiant body. In my black
and stiff attire of the raven I stood near to the other hand of the
Gouverneur Faulkner and there was such an anger for her in my heart
that it was difficult that I made a return of the smile she cast upon
me at every few minutes. Was there a mockery in that smile, that she
had discovered my woman's estate and was using her own beauty for a
challenge to me? I could not tell nor could I judge exactly what the
smile of boldness which the Lieutenant, the Count de Bourdon, cast
upon me, might mean. And in doubt and anxiety I stood there in that
great salon for many hours to make conversation with the guest of
honor easy with those who came to him for presentation, until at last
I was so weary that I could not make even a good night to my Uncle,
the General Robert, when we entered, long after midnight, the doors of
Twin Oaks.

When in my own apartment, alone with the beautiful Grandmamma, I cast
myself upon the bed upon which my father had had birth, and wept with
all my woman's heart which beat so hard under that attire of the
raven.

"Scarcely one more day and perhaps I must flee in dishonor from all
the love of these friends," I sobbed to myself, but deeper than all
that I wept for the picture of that beautiful woman at the side of my
beloved Gouverneur Faulkner.

And then suddenly as I lay in my weeping the telephone upon the table
beside my bed gave a loud ringing in the darkness that was long after
midnight. Very quickly from fear I covered my head with my pillow and
waited with a great fluttering of heart.

Then a second time it rang with a great fury and I perceived that I
must make a response to it.

I arose and took that receiver into my hand and spoke with a fine
though husky calmness.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Is that you, Robert?"