Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1914-04-24

favorite, Of course-he had been tact
full as to that. 1t was fortunate, in al
way, that he had not e 70 her. Katha-l
rine, in the grand stand until after
ward. Feeling toward her as she be-
lieved he did, with his absurd direct
ness. he would have been likely to
drop the rose in her lap, neve re-
fecting that, the tourney being a local
function, the choice should not fall up
on an outlander.
The slowing of the car brought her
back to the present, and she looked
up to see before them the great gate of
GLADDEN. Hall. She did not speak till
they had quite stopped.
Then, rs her hand lay in his for
farewell, you are right in your de-
cision," she said softly. This is your
place. You are a Valiant of Virginia
I didn't realize 1t before, but l am be-
ginning to see all it means to you"
Her voice held a lingering indefin-
able quality that was almost sadness.
and for that one slender instant, she
opened on him the unmasked batteries
of her glorious gray eyes.
0 .
The tournament ball at Damory
Court that night was more than an
event. The old mansion was an ire
sistible magnet. The floor of its yell
low parlor was known to be of delecta-
BILE hugeness. It's gardens were a le-
gend. The whole place, moreover, was
stepped in the very odor of old mys-
terry and new romance. Small wonder
that to this particular affair the elect
the major was the high custodian
of the rolls, his decisions being as the
laws of the Modes and Persians-came
gaily from the farthest county line.
and the big houses Of the neighbor-
hood were crammed with overnight
guests.
By half past nine o'clock the pha-
lanx of ~chaperons decreed by old GUS
tom had begun to arrive, and the great
iron gate at the front of the drive
erect and rustless now-saw an impos-
ing professional of carriages. These
passed up a slope as radiant with the
fairy light of paper lanterns as a Japa-
nese thoroughfare In festival season.
The colored bulbs swung moon-like
from tree and shrub, painting their
rainbow lusters on grass and drive
way. Under the high gray columns of
the porch and into the wide door,
framed in its. small loaded panes that
glowed with the merry light within,
poured a stream of loneliness: in car
riage-wraps of light tints, collared and
edged with fur or elder, or wide
sleeved mandarin coats falling back
from dazzling Threats and arms, hair
swathed with chiffon against the night
dews, and CALAMITY cavaliered by mas
culine black and white.
These from their ti~ring-rooms over
flowed presently, CARRIED like dreams,
to make ~obeisance to the dowagers
and then to drift through fower-lined
corridors. the foam on recurrent waves
of discovery. Behind the rose-bower
in the hall, which shielded a dozen
colored Neutrality-suspicious., cello, gui-
tars and mandolins-came premonitory
chirps and shivers, which presently
% into the low and dreamy melody
of Garry Me Back to Old Virginia"
Promptly as the clock in the hall
chimed ten, the music merged into a
march. Doors on opposite sides of the
upper hall swung wide and down the
broad staircase came, with slow step,
a stately procession: two heralds in
fawn-colored doublets with scroll and
trumpets wound with flowers. behind
them the Queen of Beauty, her finger
tips resting lightly In the hand Of the
knight of the Crimson Rose, and these
followed by as brave a of
lords and ladies' as ever graced castle
hall in the gallant days when knight
hood was In flower"
Shirley's gown was of pure white:
her arms were swathed In tulle,
crossed with straps of seed-pearI, over
which hung long semi-fiowing sleeves
Of satin, and from her shoulders rose
a stir pointed medieval collar of Vene-
tian lace. against whose pale ~traceries
her bronze hair glowed with rosy
lights. The elge of the square-cut cor
sage was powdered with the pearls
and against their sheen her breast and
neck had the oft creamy ivory of
magnolia buds. Her straight plain
train of satin, knotted with fresh white
rose-buds Nancy Chalmers had la
bored for q frantic half-hour In the
dressing-room for this effect) was
held by. the seven-year-old Byloe
twins, beribboned knickerbockers. duly
impressed with the grandeur of their
privilege and grimly intent on acquit-
ting themselves with glory.
Shirley's face was still touched with
the surprise that had swept it as
Valiant had stepped to her side. She
had looked to see him in the onven
tiona1 panoply a sober1sided masculine
mode DEGREES. What she had beheld
wal a figure that might have stepped
out Of an E~lizabethan picture-frame.
-aAI