across the sky.

Lucy was a tiny creature, as he had said, but she was a well-spring
of abounding energy. She had been the life of a lonely household
from the first hour, and all who came near her yielded to her spell.
Allan remembered one occasion when he had entered the house and seen
the grave and venerable chief justice of the State down upon his
hands and knees, with Lucy on his back.

She was a born actress, everybody said. When she was no more than
four, she would lie in bed when she should have been asleep, and
tell herself tragic stories to make her weep. Before long she had
discovered several chests full of the clothes which her mother had
worn in the days when she was a belle of the old plantation society;
and then Lucy would have tableaus and theatricals, and would
astonish all beholders in the role of an Oriental princess or a
Queen of the Night.

Her mother had died when she was very young, and she had grown up
with only her father for a companion. Judge Dupree was one of the
rich men of the neighbourhood, and he lavished everything upon his
daughter; but people had said that Lucy would suffer for the lack of
a woman's care, and the prophecy had been tragically fulfilled.
There had come a man, much older than herself, but with a glamour of
romance about him; and the wonder of love had suddenly revealed
itself to Lucy, and swept her away as no emotion had ever done
before.

One day she disappeared, and Montague had never seen her again. He
knew that she had gone to New Orleans to live, and he heard rumours