e something impossible?--But he came and went about
Louise, and she sung his songs, and all was going finely again, when we
gave our midsummer party.

Everybody was there, of course, and we had enrapturing music. Louise
wore--no matter--something of twilight purple, and begged for the amber,
since it was too much for my toilette,--a double India muslin, whose
snowy sheen scintillated with festoons of gorgeous green beetles' wings
flaming like fiery emeralds.--A family dress, my dear, and worn by my
aunt before me,--only that individual must have been frightened out of
her wits by it. A cruel, savage dress, very like, but ineffably
gorgeous.--So I wore her aquamarina, though the other would have been
better; and when I sailed in, with all the airy folds in a hoar-frost
mistiness fluttering round me and the glitter of Lu's jewels,--

"Why!" said Rose, "you look like the moon in a halo."

But Lu disliked a hostess out-dressing her guests.

It was dull enough till quite late, and then I stepped out with Mr.
Parti, and walked up and down a garden-path. Others were outside as
well, and the last time I passed a little arbor I caught a yellow gleam
of amber. Lu, of course. Who was with her? A gentleman, bending low to
catch her words, holding her hand in an irresistible pressure. Not Rose,
for he was flitting in beyond. Mr. Dudley. And I saw then that Lu's
kindness was too great to allow her to repel him angrily; her gentle
conscience let her wound no one. Had Rose seen the pantomime? Without
doubt. He had been seeking her, and he found her, he thought, in Mr.
Dudley's arms. After a while we went in, and, finding all smooth
enough, I slipped through the balcony-window and hung over the
balustrade, glad to be alone a moment. The wind, blowing in, carried the
gay sounds away from me, even the music came richly muffled through the
heavy curtains, and I wished to breathe balm and calm. The moon, round
and full, was just rising, making the gloom below more sweet. A full
moon is poison to some; they shut it out at every crevice, and do not
suffer a ray to cross them; it has a chemical or magnetic effect; it
sickens them. But I am never more free and royal than when the subtile
celerity of its magic combinations, whatever they are, is at work. Never
had I known the mere joy of being so intimately as to-night. The river
slept soft and mystic below the woods, the sky was full of light, the
air ripe with summer. Out of the yellow hone