"Ollie's been telling everybody about her," said Reggie. "It sounds
really wonderful. But I fear he must have exaggerated."

"People seem to develop a tendency to exaggeration," said Montague,
"when they talk about Lucy."

"I am in quite a state about her," said Reggie.

Allan Montague looked at him and smiled. There were no visible signs
of agitation about Reggie. He had come to take Alice to church, and
he was exquisitely groomed and perfumed, and wore a wonderful
scarlet orchid in his buttonhole. Montague, lounging back in a big
leather chair and watching him, smiled to himself at the thought
that Reggie regarded Lucy as a new kind of flower, with which he
might parade down the Avenue and attract attention.

"Is she large or small?" asked Reggie.

"She is about your size," said Montague,--which was very small
indeed.

Alice entered at this moment in a new spring costume. Reggie sprang
to his feet, and greeted her with his inevitable effusiveness.

When he asked, "Do you know her, too?"

"Who? Lucy?" asked Alice. "I went to school with her."

"Judge Dupree's plantation was next to ours," said Montague. "We all