Half frightened at her own success, Mistress Stagg hovered around her, giving this or that final touch to her costume; but it was Haward himself who put the roses in her hair.  “A little longer, and we will walk once more in my garden at Fair View,” he said.  “June shall come again for us, and we will tread the quiet paths, my sweet, and all the roses shall bloom again for us.  There, you are crowned!  Hail, Queen!”

Audrey felt the touch of his lips upon her forehead, and shivered.  All her world was going round; she could not steady it, could not see aright, knew not what was happening.  The strangeness made her dizzy.  She hardly heard Mistress Stagg’s last protest that it would never do,—­never in the world; hardly knew when she left the house.  She was out beneath the stars, moving toward a lit Palace whence came the sound of violins.  Haward’s arm was beneath her hand; his voice was in her ear, but it was as the wind’s voice, whose speech she did not understand.  Suddenly they were within the Palace garden, with its winding, torchlit walks, and the terraces at the side; suddenly again, they had mounted the Palace steps, and the doors were open, and she was confronted with lights and music and shifting, dazzling figures.  She stood still, clasped her hands, and gave Haward a piteous look.  Her face, for all its beauty and its painted roses, was strangely the child’s face that had lain upon his breast, where he knelt amid the corn, in the valley between the hills, so long ago.  He gave her mute appeal no heed.  The Governor’s guests, passing from room to room, crossed and recrossed the wide hall, and down the stairway, to meet a row of gallants impatient at its foot, came fair women, one after the other, the flower of the colony, clothed upon like the lilies of old.  Haward, entering with Audrey, saw Mr. Lee at the stairfoot, and, raising his eyes, was aware of Evelyn descending alone and somewhat slowly, all in rose color, and with a smile upon her lips.

She was esteemed the most beautiful woman in Virginia, the most graceful and accomplished.  Wit and charm and fortune were hers, and the little gay world of Virginia had mated her with Mr. Marmaduke Haward of Fair View.  Therefore that portion of it that chanced to be in the hall of the Governor’s house withdrew for the moment its attention from its own affairs, and bestowed it upon those of the lady descending the stairs, and of the gold-and-white gentleman who, with a strange beauty at his side, stood directly in her path.  It was a very wise little world, and since yesterday afternoon had been fairly bursting with its own knowledge.  It knew all about that gypsy who had come to town from Fair View parish,—­“La, my dear, just the servant of a minister!”—­and knew to a syllable what had passed in the violent quarrel to which Mr. Lee owed his good fortune.

[Illustration:  “I DO NOT THINK I HAVE THE HONOR OF KNOWING”—­]