FATHER ARMAND JEAN DE RANCÉ, Catholic Priest of Appleboro, South Carolina MADAME DE RANCÉ, his Mother CLÉLIE, their Servant LAURENCE MAYNE, the Boy MARY VIRGINIA EUSTIS, the Girl JAMES EUSTIS, Man of the New South MRS. EUSTIS, a Lady DOCTOR WALTER WESTMORELAND, the Beloved Physician JIM DABNEY, Editor of the Appleboro "Clarion" MAJOR APPLEBY CARTWRIGHT } MISS SALLY RUTH DEXTER } Neighbors JUDGE HAMMOND MAYNE } GEORGE INGLESBY, the Boss of Appleboro J. HOWARD HUNTER, his Private Secretary KERRY, an Irish Setter PITACHE, the Parish House Dog THE MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES OF SOUTH CAROLINA THE CHILDREN, THE MILL-HANDS, THE FACTORY FOLKS, and SLIPPY MCGEE, sometimes known as the Butterfly Man SLIPPY McGEE CHAPTER I APPLEBORO "Now there was my cousin Eliza," Miss Sally Ruth Dexter once said to me, "who was forced to make her home for thirty years in Vienna! She married an attaché of the Austrian legation, you know; met him while she was visiting in Washington, and she was such a pretty girl and he was such a charming man that they fell in love with each other and got married. Afterward his family procured him a very influential post at court, and of course poor Cousin Eliza had to stay there with him. Dear mama often said she considered it a most touching proof of woman's willingness to sacrifice herself--for there's no doubt it must have been very hard on poor Cousin Eliza. She was born and raised right here in Appleboro, you see." Do not think that Miss Sally Ruth was anything but most transparently sincere in thus sympathizing with the sad fate of poor Cousin Eliza, who was born and raised in Appleboro, South Carolina, and yet sacrificed herself by dragging out thirty years of exile in the court circles of Vienna! Any trueborn Appleboron would be equally sorry for Cousin Eliza for the same reason that Miss Sally Ruth was. Get yourself born in South Carolina and you will comprehend. "What did you see in your travels that you liked most?" I was curious to discover from an estimable citizen who had spent a summer abroad. "Why, General Lee's standin' statue in the Capitol an' his recumbent figure in Washington an' Lee chapel, of co'se!" said the colonel promptly. "An' listen hyuh, Father De Rancé, I certainly needed him to take the bad taste out of my mouth an' the red out of my eye after viewin' Bill Sherman on a brass hawse in New York, with an angel that'd lost the grace of God prancin' on ahead of him!" He added reflectively: "I had my own ideah as to where any angel leadin' _him_ was most likely headed for!" "Oh, I meant in Europe!" hastily.