lotte Ransome, she had loved the showy, and
she loved it still, as evidenced by the scarlet ribbon from which her
fan hung, and the flowered muslin, showing the hand of village
dressmaking. But she bore herself with the smiling pleasure of a child
in them.

Willy joined them. He had been talking with Mr. Jonas, and evidently
had declined the expedition too, for the little man, calling to the
setter, went off grumbling and upbraiding the lot of them.

"We came early to avoid the heat," Charlotte explained, as they went
to join Molly and Mr. Henderson.

Molly's eyes swept Mrs. Leroy's youthful fineries wonderingly,
curiously. It was no credit to Molly that her sixth sense lay in an
instinctive selection of the appropriate in the beautiful. She
wondered much as a child wonders over the mysterious, at what she more
often than not saw on others.

She lolled back now in her simple dress, of which Alexina had reason
to know the cost, and she lolled indifferently--Celeste or some one
would press out the rumples when need be--then she held out a pretty
hand to Charlotte.

But Mrs. Leroy, the greetings over, spread her draperies with some
care and absorption as she sat down. She was another type of helpless
person, the reverse of Molly, with a carping sense of responsibility.

Molly's gaze followed her concern with lazy interest in which lurked
laughter, for the dress upon which the care was bestowed was so,
well--

Alexina's face grew hot; she hated Molly, whose every thought she was
reading; and, by the girl's arrangement, they fell into two groups,
Molly and the men making one, King William perched on the railing of
the gallery, and Alexina and Mrs. Leroy the other, drawn a little
apart. There was so much to say.

"We see the Kentucky papers," Charlotte told Alexina, "so I know of
most of the happenings." She drew a little breath. "And Austen Blair
is married?"

"Yes," said Alexina, "just before we came."

Charlotte was regarding her like a child with a secret trembling on
its lips. "I was engaged to him once, Alexina, and we broke it." Light
from many sides began to break in upon Alexina.

"Oh," she said; "Mrs. Leroy!"

"It's odd, isn't it?" said Charlotte. "He was the only man ever
caring for me that I never subjugated--except Willy here--" Her voice
brightened, while she nodded, in her near-sighted way, at Mr.
Henderson. "As for him, he's ruled me and browbeat me all his life."
And Charlotte smiled contente