innocent
boy-love made him feel as if he had wings. But his wings only bore him
to failure, before an earlier and mightier force of love than his young
heart could yet compass for even such a darling as little Lucy. He sat
on the veranda step and gazed eagerly and rapturously at little Lucy on
his mother's lap, and the desire to have her away from other loves came
over him. He saw the fireflies dancing in swarms on the lawn, and a
favorite sport of the children of the village occurred to him.

"Say, little Lucy," said Jim.

Little Lucy looked up with big, dark eyes under her mist of hair, as she
nestled against Sally Patterson's shoulder.

"Say, let's chase fireflies, little Lucy."

"Do you want to chase fireflies with Jim, darling?" asked Sally.

Little Lucy nestled closer. "I would rather stay with you," said she in
her meek flute of a voice, and she gazed up at Sally with the look which
she might have given the mother she had lost.

Sally kissed her and laughed. Then she reached down a fond hand and
patted her boy's head. "Never mind, Jim," said Sally. "Mothers have to
come first."

NOBLESSE

MARGARET LEE encountered in her late middle age the rather singular
strait of being entirely alone in the world. She was unmarried, and as
far as relatives were concerned, she had none except those connected
with her by ties not of blood, but by marriage.

Margaret had not married when her flesh had been comparative; later,
when it had become superlative, she had no opportunities to marry. Life
would have been hard enough for Margaret under any circumstances, but it
was especially hard, living, as she did, with her father's stepdaughter
and that daughter's husband.

Margaret's stepmother had been a child in spite of her two marriages,
and a very silly, although pretty child. The daughter, Camille, was like
her, although not so pretty, and the man whom Camille had married
was what Margaret had been taught to regard as "common." His business
pursuits were irregular and partook of mystery. He always smoked
cigarettes and chewed gum. He wore loud shirts and a diamond scarf-pin
which had upon him the appearance of stolen goods. The gem had belonged
to Margaret's own mother, but when Camille expressed a desire to present
it to Jack Desmond, Margaret had yielded with no outward hesitation, but
afterward she wept miserably over its loss when alone in her room. The
spirit had gone out of Margaret, the little which she h