arlottesville showed
the outlines of the University, and far beyond the shadowy sweep of the
Blue Ridge. What a world it had been in the old days--great men had
ridden over these red roads in swaying carriages, Jefferson, Lafayette,
Washington himself.

If she could only meet men like that. Men to whom life was more than a
game--a carnival. From the stone bench where she sat she had a view
through the long French windows of the three tables of bridge--there
were slender, restless girls, eager, elegant youths. "Perhaps they are
no worse than those who lived here before them," Madge's sense of
justice told her. "But isn't there something better?"

From her window later, she saw Dalton's car flash out into the road. The
light wound down and down, and appeared at last upon the highway. It was
not the first time that George had played the game with another girl.
But he had always come back to her. She had often wondered why she let
him come. "Why do I let him?" she asked the moon.

III

It really was a great moon. It shone through the windows of the Bird
Room at Huntersfield, wooing George out into the fragrant night. He
could hear voices on the lawn--young Paine's laugh--Becky's. Once when
he looked he saw them on the ridge, silhouetted against the golden sky.
They were dancing, and Randy's clear whistle, piping a modern tune, came
up to him, tantalizing him.

But the Judge held him. It took him nearly an hour to get through with
the Bob-whites and the sandpipers, the wild turkeys, the ducks and the
wild geese. And long before that time George was bored to extinction. He
had little imagination. To him the Trumpeter was just a stuffed old
bird. He could not picture him as blowing his trumpet beside the moon,
or wearing a golden crown as in "The Seven Brothers." He had never heard
of "The Seven Brothers," and nobody in the world wore crowns except
kings. As for the old eagle, it is doubtful whether George had ever felt
the symbolism of his presence on a silver coin, or that he had ever
linked him in his heart with God.

Then, suddenly, the whole world changed. Becky appeared on the
threshold.

"Grandfather," she said, "Aunt Claudia says there is lemonade on the
lawn."

"In a moment, my dear."

George rose hastily. "Don't let me keep you, Judge----"

Becky advanced into the room. "Aren't the birds wonderful?"

"They are," said George, seeing them wonderful for the first time.

"I always feel," she said, "as i