reath about her forehead was of lilies-of-the-valley. She
had done a day's scouring for them, and they had come out of the summer
hat of one of the white ladies on the coast. This insured their quality,
and no doubt contributed somewhat to the quiet serenity with which she
bore herself as, with her little head held like that of the Venus of
Milo, she danced down the centre of the room, holding her flounces in
either hand, and kicking the floor until she kicked both her slippers to
pieces, when she finished the figure in her stocking feet.

She had a relay of slippers ready, and there was a scramble as to who
should put them on; but she settled that question by making 'Pollo rise,
with his fiddle in his arms, and lend her his chair for a minute while
she pulled them on herself. Then she let Pete and Pierre each have one
of the discarded slippers as a trophy. Lily had always danced out
several pairs of slippers at the Christmas dance, but she had never
achieved her stocking feet in the first round until now, and she was in
high glee over it. If she had been admired before, she was looked upon
as a raving, tearing beauty to-night--and so she was. Fortunately 'Pollo
had his fiddling to do, and this saved him from any conspicuous folly.
But he kept his eyes on her, and when she grew too ravishingly lovely to
his fond vision, and he couldn't stand it a minute longer in silence, he
turned to the man next him, who played the bones, and remarked, "Ef--ef
anybody but Gord A'mighty had a-made anything as purty as Miss Lily,
dey'd 'a' stinted it somewhar," and, watching every turn, he lent his
bow to her varying moods while she tired out one dancer after another.
It was the New Orleans fellow who first lost his head utterly. He had
danced with her but three times, but while she took another's hand and
whizzed through the figures he scarcely took his eyes from her, and
when, at about midnight, he succeeded in getting her apart for a
promenade, he poured forth his soul to her in the picturesque English of
the quadroon quarter of New Orleans. "An' now, to proof to you my lorv,
Ma'm'selle Lee-lee"--he gesticulated vigorously as he spoke--"I am
geeving you wan beau-u-tiful Christmas present--I am goin' to geeve
you--w'at you t'ink? My borgee!" With this he turned dramatically and
faced her. They were standing now under the shed outside the door in the
moonlight, and, although they did not see him, Apollo stood within
hearing, behind a pi