everything in the world, like the
motor launch boys--money and family and friends--when David has
nothing."

"Madge declares that David will some day be a great man," rejoined
Eleanor. "There he is now over there under the trees with Madge, Phil
and little blind Alice. Isn't she a quaint child? She says she loves
Madge best of all of us, because she can feel the color in Madge's red
hair and cheeks. Miss Betsey is almost jealous of our little captain."

Lillian finished eating a bunch of catawba grapes. "Miss Betsey wants to
take that blind child back to Hartford with her. She says that if Alice
sees specialists in New York her sight may be restored. And her
grandfather has consented to let her go, though I don't see how the old
man can bear to give her up. Mr. and Mrs. Preston have asked him to live
here with them, but he says he will go into a Confederate home for old
Southern soldiers as soon as Alice leaves. Let's go over under the trees
with Madge and Phil. We can eat our grapes and talk about the party."

Madge waved a yellow telegram frantically as Nellie and Lillian came
toward them. "Tom and the boys will be back with the motor launch the
day after to-morrow," she announced. "And that darling, Mrs. Preston,
says we can have our dance on that very night, and it's to be a fancy
dress party if we like, because she has stores and stores of lovely
old-fashioned clothes up in her attic and she won't mind our dressing up
in them. So we must drive round the neighborhood this afternoon and
deliver our invitations and decide what characters we are to represent
and----" Madge gasped for breath, while Phil fanned her violently with a
large palm-leaf fan.

"Come right on upstairs to the attic with me," ordered Madge, as soon as
she could speak again. "We have no time to waste. We can look at the
dresses and then see what characters we wish to represent. David, you
can come, too," invited Madge graciously. "You can carry Alice up the
steps."

David lifted the blind girl to his shoulder and trotted obediently after
the girls. He no longer minded Madge's occasionally imperious manner,
for he knew she was unconscious of it.

On top of all the other clothes in Mrs. Preston's cedar chest was a
black velvet gown, made with a long train and a V-shaped neck. Phyllis
laid it regretfully aside. "This is perfectly elegant," she sighed, "but
it isn't appropriate for any of us to wear."

Lillian Seldon received the rejected costu