"Those Endearing Young Charms"
The Price of Silence
The Uniform
The Flag Goes Marching By
"Good-by"




CHAPTER I

A Cat Can Do More than Look at a King

It was long ago in the days when men sighed when they fell in love; when
people danced by candle and lamp, and did dance, too, instead of solemnly
gliding about; in that mellow time so long ago, when the young were
romantic and summer was roses and wine, old Carewe brought his lovely
daughter home from the convent to wreck the hearts of the youth of Rouen.

That was not a far journey; only an afternoon's drive through the woods
and by the river, in an April, long ago; Miss Betty's harp carefully
strapped behind the great lumbering carriage, her guitar on the front
seat, half-buried under a mound of bouquets and oddly shaped little
bundles, farewell gifts of her comrades and the good Sisters. In her left
hand she clutched a small lace handkerchief, with which she now and then
touched her eyes, brimmed with the parting from Sister Cecilia, Sister
Mary Bazilede, the old stone steps and all the girls: but for every time
that she lifted the dainty kerchief to brush away the edge of a tear, she
took a deep breath of the Western woodland air and smiled at least twice;
for the years of strict inclosure within St. Mary's walls and still