and taffetas; some wear leather, buckram and clanking steel. While the
caldron boils, their cloud-forms grow ever more distinct and definite,
till at length I can trace their every feature. I see the color of their
eyes. I discern the shades of their hair. Some heads are streaked with
gray; others are glossy with the sheen of youth. As a climax to my
conjurations I speak the word of all words magical, "Dorothy," and lo! as
though God had said, "Let there be light," a fair, radiant girl steps from
the portals of Haddon Hall and illumines all my ancient company so that I
may see even the workings of their hearts.

They, and the events of their lives, their joys and sorrows, their virtues
and sins, their hatreds, jealousies, and loves--the seven numbers in the
total sum of life--pass before me as in a panorama, moving when I bid them
move, pausing when I bid them pause, speaking when I bid them speak, and
alas! fading back into the dim gray limbo of the past long, long ere I
would have them go.

But hark! my radiant shades are about to speak. The play is about to
begin.




Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall





CHAPTER I