The Senator's Favorite

Yet in all honor his fealty belonged to dark-eyed Ethel.

In desperation he went away to try to forget the blue eyes that were luring him from his honor.

And he remained away until he received a letter from Earle Winans, telling him of all that had happened since he left Washington.

"We are here at Rosemont—Precious and I; the mater and Ethel are still in the Capitol City. Precious is improving slowly but surely in the fine mountain air, and I—well, I fear I'm losing my heart to a village coquette, the daintiest fairy I ever saw. Rosemont is a very gay little town, with some nice people—old Virginia stock, you know."

Then Lord Chester resolved to go back to Washington and see Ethel again. Perhaps now that Precious was gone his heart might return to its first love.

CHAPTER XII.

"A VILLAGE COQUETTE."

"Laughing eyes, curly hair, dainty robes,
They had crazed his hot, fiery brain, then.
Ah, the silliest maiden can make
A fool of the wisest of men!"

    —May Agnes Fleming.

"I am seventeen to-day, and I have thirteen lovers!" cried pretty, saucy Ladybird, pirouetting on the velvet greensward in front of her father's house at Rosemont until her short golden-brown locks danced in fluffy rings all over her round, white, babyish forehead.

"Thirteen is always an unlucky number. Thee ought to jilt thy last lover," cried Auntie Prue from the porch.

"Ay, but I won't, for I like the thirteenth best of all," laughed the little beauty.

"You'll rue the day if you marry him," cried Aura Stanley sharply.

She leaned against a rose-wreathed pillar of the porch, a tall girl in pink, with hard black eyes and thick brown hair in a rich braid. She lived next door and was the village lawyer's only daughter.

Before the Conways came here to live, five weeks ago, Aura had been called the prettiest girl in the village, but now the town was divided into two factions over the rival beauties, and among those who had gone over to the enemy was one on whom Aura's passionate heart was set.

"You'll rue the day, Ladybird, if you marry him," repeated Aura angrily, and held up her shapely white hand, on which glittered a splendid diamond ring; but, to her surprise and horror, the little dancing madcap laughed and answered teasingly:

"Nonsense! I'll be wearing that ring in a week, Aura."

"Never! I'll throw it in the river first," flashed Aura, and Aunt Prue caught the glance of jealous hate in the girl's black eyes.

She exclaimed soothingly:

"Aura, the child is only teasing thee. She does not want thy lover, dear."

Ladybird Conway turned her laughing hazel eyes on the old lady and protested gayly:

"But, Auntie Prue, he's my lover now. Doesn't he call on me three times a week, and send me flowers and books and candy? And hasn't he promised to escort me to the picnic to-morrow?"

"He asked me first, but I refused," cried Aura triumphantly, and added spitefully: "I wouldn't take what another girl refused."

"Neither would I!" flashed Ladybird, with such sarcastic emphasis that Aura flushed burning red at the intimation that she had told a falsehood.

"Girls, girls, don't thee quarrel over nothing!" cried the old Quakeress anxiously, but Aura was furious.

"Ladybird Conway, I'll never speak to you again," she cried, and flew down the graveled path, shutting the front gate with a vicious slam.

Aunt Prue cried out reprovingly:

"Thee has lost thy young friend forever, Ladybird, and thee ought to be ashamed of thyself, taking another girl's lover so audaciously."

"But he isn't hers—so there! I know, because I asked him. I said she claimed him, and if that was so not to come to see me any more. But he denied it. He said he had only known her two weeks when we moved here, and had no idea of being engaged to her. He lent her the ring because she asked him to, and she's only trying to claim him to vex me," and the lovely face, with its dancing hazel eyes and lilies and roses, looked quite earnest for a moment.

"But, child, thee ain't in love with this Earle Winans? Thee ain't thinking of marrying him, dear?"

Willful Ladybird smiled and blushed, and answered roguishly:

"Why, Auntie Prue, of course I intend to get married some time; I don't want to be an old maid like you; but I mean to marry the man that loves me best."

"The one that loves thee best? But, child, how can thee guess that out of thirteen lovers?"

"Oh, I have a grand plan to test all my lovers—at the picnic to-morrow!" and the fair face dimpled all over with mischievous laughter.

"Are they all going—the thirteen? Thee will not have any peace, child, and the other girls will be jealous."

"I don't care. It's such fun to have so many admirers showing me attention at the same time," laughed the little incarnation of sunny beauty and unconscious cruelty.

"But it's cruel to make the young men suffer so!" hazarded the kind-hearted old lady, and again the girl laughed archly:

"Suffer? Oh, pshaw! they need to have the conceit taken out of them," and Ladybird began to run over the category of the faults and foibles of her admirers, making such sarcastic hits that the old Quakeress shook with silent laughter and gave up her futile lecture on coquetry.

But when the girl paused for breath, all rosy and laughing, Aunt Prue exclaimed:

"Thee hasn't said a word about thy last lover—about Earle Winans."

"My thirteenth lover. Oh, no, I have no fault to find with him. He is simply perfect," cried Ladybird, as innocently as if she had not guessed that Aura Stanley was listening behind her parlor blinds to every word.

Aura was listening, her eyes wrathful, her cheeks burning.

But she heard no more just then.

After that saucy parting shot Ladybird sat down on the porch steps like a little child, with her round, dimpled chin in the hollow of her soft little hand, and fell to watching the rosy sunset as the god of day sank to rest behind the purple western hills. Her face wore a pensive cast that made her look positively angelic. And yet she was actually meditating a deed of girlish diablerie on the morrow, the naughty little coquette!

The next day was perfect—a May day, clear and golden, and when the fervid sunbeams began to dry the dew-tears from the eyes of the blue violets in the grass, the gay picnic party assembled in the Rosemont orchard by the river, the scene of the day's festivities.

All the prettiest girls of the village were there, and not one of Ladybird's lovers had stayed away. And how they envied handsome Earle Winans, who was her special companion for the day, while they had to be content with other girls—pretty enough, to be sure—but—"not the rose."

Aura Stanley had come with Clarence Grey, but she knew she was second choice, that he had asked Ladybird first, and she could hardly control her bitter resentment.

Ladybird gave her a saucy nod and smile when they met, but Aura averted her head in jealous anger when she saw how lovely her rival looked in her white flannel suit with the blue silk blouse showing under the open white jacket, and the white sailor hat crowning the little head, with its fluffy rings of golden brown.

"Miss Stanley would not speak to you—why?" Earle Winans asked in surprise.