Every one laughed except Earle Winans. He bowed coldly to his hostess and withdrew from the room. The others followed quickly, and the last sound they heard was Ladybird's gay laughter as she cried out mockingly: "I invite you all to my wedding with Mr. Tennant ten years hence!" They were gone, but Aura lingered, waiting to see what the whimsical little madcap would do next; no doubt, though, she would laugh at her victims. But Ladybird staggered to a sofa and fell upon it with her face hidden on her arm. Then a low grieved sob broke the stillness of the room that had so lately echoed her mocking laughter. She had humiliated Earle Winans, punished him as she had vowed to do in her childish resentment. But was the triumph sweet? Aura thought not as she saw the white shoulders heaving with a storm of smothered sobs. "She threw Earle's heart away, and now she is sorry," thought Aura, and fled back to her home somewhat comforted by the thought that all was over between Earle and Miss Conway. She would try to win him now herself while he was angry with the pretty coquette. Earle was indeed very angry as he walked slowly toward his own home, leaving the twinkling village lights behind him in the distance. He had received such a cruel shock that he could not tell whether he loved or hated Ladybird most. With a heart full of love he had written to her that morning, asking leave to call that evening for the answer she had promised when he asked her to wear his ring. She had answered with one simple little word: "Come." "And I went for--what?" he growled furiously to himself; "to be made a fool of with a dozen other idiots--puppets that she pulled with a string!" and he gnashed his white teeth in rage. But he knew that he had had his triumph, too. He had seen her quail momentarily at his proud refusal. He knew that she was wounded. "She could not bend Earle Winans' proud spirit, and that will be a thorn in her pillow to-night," he laughed harshly. He sat down inside the Rosemont grounds and bared his feverish brow to the cool, fragrant night. In the stillness a whip-poor-will called from a thicket in its eerie voice, and another replied so near at hand that he started with an uncanny thrill. "I shall get the dismals if I stay here," rising impatiently. "Heigho! I wish I had never come to Rosemont, never met this romantic little maiden with her silly love-tests and her abominable coquetries! Well, I am done with her forever. But what would my friends all say if they knew that Earle Winans had been vanquished by a little village beauty? And how am I to keep it from Lord Chester?" He flushed hotly out there in the dark, for he detested ridicule. "I must swear Chester to secrecy," he decided. "Ah, how I wish I had never come down to Virginia! I'll leave here to-morrow, and go abroad again in a week. That is," with a start, "if I am alive to-morrow."