ed signs of continued opulence. Eudora's, behind her trees
and leafing vines, was gray for lack of paint. Some of the colonial
ornamental details about porches and roof were sloughing off or had
already disappeared. The Lancaster house gleamed behind its grove of
evergreen trees as white and perfect as in its youth. The windows showed
rich slants of draperies behind their green glister of old glass.

A gardener, with a boy assistant, was at work in the grounds when Eudora
entered. He touched his cap. He was an old man who had lived with the
Lancasters ever since Eudora could remember. He advanced toward her now.
"Sha'n't Tommy push--the baby-carriage up to the house for you, Miss
Eudora?" he said, in his cracked old voice.

Eudora flushed slightly, and, as if in response, the old man flushed,
also. "No, I thank you, Wilson," she said, and moved on.

The boy, who was raking dry leaves, stood gazing at them with a shrewd,
whimsical expression. He was the old man's grandson.

"Is that a boy or a girl kid, grandpa?" he inquired, when the gardener
returned.

"Hold your tongue!" replied the old man, irascibly. Suddenly he seized
the boy by his two thin little shoulders with knotted old hands.

"Look at here, Tommy, whatever you know, you keep your mouth shet, and
whatever you don't know, you keep your mouth shet, if you know what's
good for you," he said, in a fierce whisper.

The boy whistled and shrugged his shoulders loose. "You know I ain't
goin' to tell tales, grandpa," he said, in a curiously manly fashion.

The old man nodded. "All right, Tommy. I don't believe you be, nuther,
but you may jest as well git it through your head what's goin' to happen
if you do."

"Ain't goin' to," returned the boy. He whistled charmingly as he raked
the leaves. His whistle sounded like the carol of a bird.

Eudora pushed the carriage around to the side door, and immediately
there was a fluttering rush of a slender woman clad in lavender down the
steps. This woman first kissed Eudora with gentle fervor, then, with a
sly look around and voice raised intentionally high, she lifted the
blue and white roll from the carriage with the tenderest care. "Did the
darling come to see his aunties?" she shrilled.

The old man and the boy in the front yard heard her distinctly. The old
man's face was imperturbable. The boy grinned.

Two other women, all clad in lavender, appeared in the doorway. They
also bent over the blue and white bundl