o effectively, that he did not get his
breath for five minutes.

Judy had read the poem one day when she was helping Anne to plan the
pictures, and it had, like all songs of the sea, sung itself into her
heart.

Again the big picture with its stretch of sea made the background, and
Judy sat on the rock looking at it. The plaid lining of her mackintosh
showed, and the wind sounded wheezy, but the pathos in Judy's face, the
tragedy in her eyes as the third verse was read:

"And the stately ships go on,
To the haven under the hill,
But oh, for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!"

made the Judge wipe his eyes, and Mrs. Batcheller say hurriedly, "She
should not have done it. She should not."

And behind the dropped curtain Judy was saying to Dr. Grennell, "I want
to go back to the sea. I hate the country. I want to go back to the
wind and waves. I can't stand it here."

But the doctor put his hand on her shoulder and looked down into her
troubled face with grave eyes.

"Not now," he said, quietly, "not while your grandfather needs you,
Judy."

Judy drew a long breath, then she put out her hand as if to make him a
promise.

"No, not while grandfather needs me," she said, "not while he needs me,
Doctor."

CHAPTER XII

LORDLY LAUNCELOT

The children of the town of Fairfax never forgot that afternoon at
Judge Jameson's. For years they had peeped through the hedge at the
fascinating Cupid of the Fountain, but never had one of them put foot
in the old garden, with its mysterious nooks and formal paths, which
lay in the shadow of the Great House.

But to-day with its gipsy band playing wild music, with its gaily
decorated tables, its awe-inspiring Perkins,--who with his satellites
offered food fit for the gods,--with its riot of spring color, it was
beyond their wildest dreams.

Before they went home they all assembled again in the great dining-room
from which the chairs had been taken, and on the polished floor every
one, old and young, danced the Virginia Reel, the Judge leading with
Miss Mary, and Mrs. Batcheller bringing up at the end of the line with
Jimmie Jones.

"It was a success, wasn't it," said Launcelot, when the children had
trooped away, and Anne and Mrs. Batcheller and the smiling Miss Mary
had been driven home in the Judge's carriage.

"Yes," said Judy, abstractedly, watching the musicians, who were having
their refreshments under the li