It was all light and color, that night. Even the formal flower-beds of the grounds and the fountain spouting on the lawn were like scenery in the lime-light. Only, back in the shrubbery there were darker nooks in summer-houses and arbors for those who loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds, to the common mind, were likely to seem foolish. I remember thinking that if Mr. Giddings really wanted a chance to take the high dive of which he had spoken to me, the opportunity was before him. His Laura was there, her devotee-like expression striving with an exceedingly low-cut dress to sound the distinguishing note of her personality. Giddings was at the punch-bowl as on their arrival she swept past with the General. When he saw the nun-like glance over the swelling bosom, the poor stricken cynic blushed, turned pale, and wheeled to flee. But Cecil, as if following orders, arrested him and began plying him with the punch--from which Giddings seemed to draw courage: for I saw him, soon, gravitate to her whom he loved and so mysteriously dreaded. "It's a pe'fect jewel-case of a house!" said the Captain, as he moved with the trooping company through the mansion. "Indeed, indeed it is," said Mrs. Tolliver to Alice; "the jewel, whoever it may be, is to be envied." "I hope," said Jim to Josie, "that you agree with Mrs. Tolliver?" "Oh, yes," said Josie, "but you attach far too much importance to my judgment. If it is any comfort to you, however, I want to praise--everything--unreservedly." "I won't know, for a while," said Jim, "whether it is to be my house only, or home in the full sense of the word." "One doesn't know about that, I fancy," said Cecil; "for a long time--" "I mean to know soon," said Jim. Josie was looking intently at the carving on one of the chairs, and paid no heed, though the remark seemed to be addressed to her. "What I mean, you know," said Cecil, "is that, no matter how well the house may be built and furnished, it's the associations, the history of the place, the things that are in the air, that makes 'Ome!" There was in the manner of his capitalizing the word as he uttered it, and in the unwonted elision of the H, that tribute to his dear island which the exiled Briton (even when soothed by the consolation offered by street-car systems to superintend, and rose-pink blondes to serve), always pays when he speaks of Home. "Associations," said Jim, "may be historical or prophetic. In the former case, we have to take them on trust; but as to those of the future, we are sure of them." "Yahs," said Cecil, using the locution which he always adopted when something subtle was said to him, "I dare say! I dare say!" "Well, then," Jim went on, "I have this matter of the atmosphere or associations under my own control." "Just so," said Cecil. "Clever conceit, Miss Trescott, isn't it, now?"