nt
to feel though there are cowards in the world, that you aren't one;
though there are boys who fail and boys who are not what they ought to
be, that you are really brave and true and good, Launcelot--always
brave and true and good--"

For a moment he could not speak, and then he said in a moved voice:

"Do you really think that, Judy?"

"Really, Launcelot."

"It helps me to know it--it will help me all my life," he said, simply,
and for a moment his hand touched hers, as if a promise were given and
taken.

All his life he carried the picture of her as she sat there with the
silver light of the moon making a halo for her head--and though after
that she was many times her old tempestuous self, yet the vision of
little St. Judith, as he named her then, stayed with him, and led him
to the heights.

Judy went out to dinner on Dr. Grennell's arm. She looked very grown
up with her long white dress, with her hair twisted high, with pearl
sidecombs that had belonged to her grandmother, and with a bunch of
violets--Launcelot's birthday gift to her, in her belt.

"How old are you, little lady?" asked the doctor, as they took their
seats at the table.

"As old as I look," flashing a demure glance.

"Then you are ten," he decided, "in spite of your hair on top of your
head. Your eyes give you away. They are child-eyes."

"I hope she will always keep child-eyes," said the Judge, who at the
head of the table was serving the soup from an old-fashioned silver
tureen, with Perkins at his elbow to pass the plates. "I don't want
her to grow up."

"I shall always be your little girl, grandfather," and Judy nodded
happily to him from the foot of the table, where she was taking Aunt
Patterson's place, "even when I am forty."

"Aw, forty," said Tommy Tolliver, unexpectedly, "that's awful old.
You'll be an old maid, Judy."

"That's what I intend to be," said that independent young lady. "I am
going to be an artist."

"Oh, Judy," said little Anne, "you know you won't. You will marry
Prince Charming and live happy ever after, as the fairy books say, and
it will be lovely."

But Judy shrugged her shoulders, as they all laughed.

"We will see," she said, "and anyhow I am too young to think about such
things," and at that the little grandmother nodded approval.

Tommy, having made his one contribution to the general conversation,
ate steadily through the menu, accompanied by Amelia, whose sigh when
the last course of