XXVIII. THE PLAYER 375 XXIX. AMOR VINCIT 391 XXX. THE LAST ACT 401 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE GAZED WITH WIDE-OPEN EYES AT THE INTRUDER (page 106) _Frontispiece_ “HAD YOU LOVED ME--I HAD BEEN HAPPY” 58 AUDREY LEFT HER WARNING TO BE SPOKEN BY MACLEAN 206 “I DO NOT THINK I HAVE THE HONOR OF KNOWING”-- 270 HER DARK EYES MADE APPEAL 342 “JEAN! JEAN HUGON!” 414 AUDREY CHAPTER I THE CABIN IN THE VALLEY The valley lay like a ribbon thrown into the midst of the encompassing hills. The grass which grew there was soft and fine and abundant; the trees which sprang from its dark, rich mould were tall and great of girth. A bright stream flashed through it, and the sunshine fell warm upon the grass and changed the tassels of the maize into golden plumes. Above the valley, east and north and south, rose the hills, clad in living green, mantled with the purpling grape, wreathed morn and eve with trailing mist. To the westward were the mountains, and they dwelt apart in a blue haze. Only in the morning, if the mist were not there, the sunrise struck upon their long summits, and in the evening they stood out, high and black and fearful, against the splendid sky. The child who played beside the cabin door often watched them as the valley filled with shadows, and thought of them as a great wall between her and some land of the fairies which must needs lie beyond that barrier, beneath the splendor and the evening star. The Indians called them the Endless Mountains, and the child never doubted that they ran across the world and touched the floor of heaven.