te that opened,
beyond the currant bushes, out into the street.

My readjustment of the doctor's affairs had occupied no small part of my
working day, and it was even later than usual when I arrived at home,
too tired to consider dressing for dinner. At the door old Esdras
announced that Sally had already gone to dine with Bonny Marshall, and
would go to the theatre afterwards.

"Was she alone, Esdras?"

"Naw, suh, Marse George he done come fur her en ca'ried her off."

"Well, I'll dine just as I am, and as soon as it's ready."

The house was empty and deserted without Sally, and the perfume of a
mimosa tree, which floated in on the warm breeze as I entered the
drawing-room, came to me like the sweet, vague scent of her hair and her
gown. A dim light burned under a pink shade in one corner, and so quiet
appeared the quaint old room, with its faded cashmere rugs and its
tapestried furniture, that the eyes of the painted Blands and Fairfaxes
seemed alive as they looked down on me from the high white walls. From
his wire cage, shrouded in a silk cover, the new canary piped a single
enquiring note as he heard my step.

I dined alone, waited on in a paternal, though condescending, manner by
old Esdras, and when I had finished my coffee I sat for a few minutes
with a cigar on the porch, where the branches of the mimosa tree in full
bloom drooped over the white railing. While I sat there, I thought
drowsily of many things--of the various financial schemes in which I was
now involved; of the big railroad deal which I had refused to shirk and
which meant possible millions; of the fact that the General was rapidly
aging, and had already spoken of resigning the presidency of the Great
South Midland and Atlantic. Then there flashed before me suddenly, in
the midst of my business reflections, the look with which Sally had
regarded me that morning while she lay, in her blue satin jacket, on the
embroidered pillows.

"How alike all the Blands are," I thought sleepily, as I threw the end
of my cigar out into the garden and rose to go upstairs to bed; "I never
noticed until of late how much Sally is growing to resemble her Aunt
Matoaca."

At midnight, after two hours' restless sleep, I awoke to find her
standing before the bureau, in a gown of silver gauze, which gave her an
illusive appearance of being clothed in moonlight. When I called her,
and she turned and came toward me, I saw that there was a brilliant,
unnatural look