"She owns a fine property in New Orleans, but left there in disgust when the Yankees took possession. I was delighted to find her in Mobile, and persuaded her to come along and see plantation life in our country. We met her first in Paris--Kenneth and I. He will be delightfully surprised to find her here." "No doubt, no doubt," but Loring's assent was not very hearty; he remembered those first comments on her at Loringwood. "Dr. Delaven, also, was among her Parisian acquaintances, so you will have quite a foreign colony at the Terrace." "I was much pleased with that fine young fellow, Dr. Delaven," remarked the Judge, "and really consider you most fortunate to secure his services--a very superior young man, and possessed, I should say, of very remarkable talent, and of too gay a heart to be weighed down with the importance of such special knowledge, as is too often the case in young professional men--yes, sir; a very bright young man." Mrs. McVeigh, hearing laughter, had stepped out on the veranda, and smiled in sympathy with the couple who appeared on the step. The very talented young man just mentioned was wreathed in blossoms and wild vines; he carried Aunt Sajane's parasol, and was guided by reins formed of slender vines held in Miss Evilena's hands; the hat he wore was literally heaped with flowers, and he certainly did not appear to be weighed by the importance of any special knowledge at that moment. At sight of the Judge, Evilena dropped her improvised lines and ran to him. "Oh, Judge, it is right kind of you to come over early today. Aunt Sajane is coming, she was down to the river with us; she laughed too much to walk fast. We were getting wild flowers for decorating--and here is Dr. Delaven." "Yes, I'm one of the things she's been decorating," and he entered from the veranda, shook hands with Clarkson, and stood for inspection. "Don't I look like a lamb decked for the sacrifice? But faith it was the heart of a lion I needed to go into the moccasin dens where she sent me this day. The blossoms desired by your daughter were sure to grow in the wildest swamps." "I didn't suppose a bog-trotter would object to that," remarked the girl, to Loring's decided amusement. "Lena!" and at the look of horror on her mother's face she fled to the veranda. "Ah--Mrs. McVeigh, I'm not hurt at all, but if she had murthered me entirely your smile would give me new life again; it's a guardian angel you are to me." "You do need assistance," she replied, endeavoring to untwine the vines twisted about his shoulders, "now turn around." He did, spinning in top fashion, with extended arms, while Evilena smiled at the Judge from the window. His answering smile grew somewhat constrained as his hostess deliberately put her pretty arm half way around the young man's shoulder in her efforts to untangle him. "I say, Judge, isn't it in fine luck I am?--the undoing of Delaven!"