struggling with unshed tears.

"The next month he was ordered home, and soon after fell the bitter
business of the marriage in Italy. I stood up with him. She was the most
beautiful creature I have ever seen--save one; and a voice--God! I heard
her sing in Milan once. The king was there; the opera 'La Favorita.' She
was sent for to the royal box. We had the horses out of her carriage and
dragged it home ourselves. What a night it was! What a night it was!"

McDermott paused as in an ecstasy of remembrance.

"What was her name?" Francis asked.

"Ah, that"--he threw out his hand with a dramatic gesture--"'tis a
thing I swore never to mention. 'Tis a fancy of Dulany's to let it die
in silence."

"And she left him?" Mrs. Ravenel's voice was full of sympathy as she
spoke.

"For another!" Dermott made a dramatic pause, relishing his climaxes.
"And then she died."

"So, for his daughter's sake"--there was a curious hesitancy in his
speech just here, but he carried it off jauntily--"his daughter, a
primrose girl and the love of my life, I've come to ask that you be a
bit lenient with him, Mr. Ravenel, at the times he has taken a drop too
much, as your lady mother has been in the year past. I think you'll find
him able to manage, for, in spite of his infirmity, black and white fall
under his spell alike."