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Contents CHAPTER PAGE I. THE BIRTH OF COLUMBINE i II. FAIRIES AT THE CHRISTENING . . 8 III. DAWN SHADOWS 18 IV. THE ANCIENT MISCHIEF . . .30 V. PRETTY APPLES IN EDEN . . .40 VI. SHEPHERDS CALENDAR . . . .51 VII. AMBITION WAKES 61 VIII. AMBITION LOOKS IN THE GLASS . .71 IX. LIFE, ART, AND LOVE . . . .89 X. DRURY LANE AND COVENT GARDEN . 108 XI. THE ORIENT PALACE OF VARIETIES . 120 XII. GROWING OLD 131 XIII. THE BALLET OF CUPID . . . .140 XIV. RAIN ON THE ROOF . . . .152 XV. CRAS AMET 153 XVI. LOVES HALCYON 165 XVII. COLUMBINE ASLEEP . . . .175 XVIII. SWEET AND TWENTY . . . .176 XIX. THE GIFT OF OPALS . . . .186 XX. FETE GALANTE 199 XXI. EPILOGUE 216 XXII. THE UNFINISHED STATUE . . . 221 XXIII. Two LETTERS 234 XXIV. JOURNEYS END 241 XXV. MONOTONE 249 XXVI. IN SCYROS 255 XXVII. QUARTETTE 271 Contents CHAPTER XXVIII. ST. VALENTINES EVE . XXIX. COLUMBINE AT DAWN . XXX. LUGETE, O VENERES XXXI. A DOCUMENT IN MADNESS XXXII. PAGEANTRY OF DEATH . XXXIII. LOOSE ENDS . XXXIV. MR. Z. TREWHELLA . XXXV. MARRIAGE OF COLUMBINE XXXVI. THE TRAGIC LOADING . XXXVII. COLUMBINE IN THE DARK XXXVIII. THE ALIEN CORN . XXXIX. INTERMEZZO . XL. HARVEST HOME XLI. COLUMBINE HAPPY XLII. SHADED SUNLIGHT . XLI 1 1. Bow BELLS . XLIV. PICKING UP THREADS . XLV. LONDON PRIDE XLVI. MAY MORNING XLVII. NlGHTLIGHT TlME XLVIII. CARNI VALE . Yi PAGE . 282 . 288 . 289 . 298 303 . 310 317 332 341 349 350 359 367 370 371 377 382 389 394 399 . 404 Chapter I The Birth of Columbine ALL day long over the gray Islington Street October, casting pearly mists, had turned the sun to silver and made London a city of meditation whose tumbled roofs and parapets and glancing spires appeared hushed and translucent as in a lakes tranquillity. Thetraffic, muted by the glory of a fine autumn day, marched, it seemed, more slowly and to a sound of heavier drums. Like mountain echoes street cries haunted the bur- nished air, while a muffin-man, abroad too early for the sea- son, swung his bell intermittently with a pastoral sound. Even the milk-cart, heard in the next street, provoked the imagination of distant armor. The houses seemed to acquire from the gray and silver web of October enchantment a mysterious immensity. There was no feeling of stressful humanity even in the myriad sounds that, in a sheen of beauty, floated about the day. The sun went down behind roofs and left the sky plumed with rosy feathers. There was a cold gray minute before dusk came stealing in, richly and profoundly blue then night sprang upon the street, and through the darkness an equinoctial wind swept, moaning. Along the gutters the brown leaves danced the tall plane tree at the end of the street would not be motionless until December should freeze the black branches in diapery against a somber sky. Along the gutters the leaves whispered and ran and shivered and leaped, while the gas-jets flapped in pale lamps. There was no starshine on the night Jenny Raeburn was 2 born, only a perpetual Carnival sound of leaves dancing and the foot- steps of people going home. Mrs. Raeburn had not been very conscious of the days calm beauty. Her travail had been long the reward scarcely apprehended. Already two elder children had closed upon her the gates of youth, and she was inclined to resent the expense of so much pain for an additional tie. There was not much to make the great adventure of childbirth endurable. The transitory amazement of a few relatives was ameager consolation for the doubts and agonies of nine slow months. But the muslin curtains, tied back with raffish pink bows, had really worried her most of all. Something was wrong with them their dinginess or want of symmetry annoyed her...