CHAPTER XIV.
A SECOND MAID OF HONOR It was a new experience to Miles Bradford, this trudging through the dense beech woods on a summer night behind a row of flickering lanterns.
The path they followed was a wide one, and well worn by the feet of churchgoing negroes, for it was the shortest cut between the Valley and Stumptown, a little group of cabins clustered around the colored church.
Ranald led the way with a brakeman's lantern, and Rob occasionally illuminated the scene by electric flashes from the head of the walking-stick he was flourishing.

A varied string of fiery dragons, winged fish, and heathen hobgoblins danced along beside them, for Kitty was putting candles in a row of Japanese lanterns when they arrived at The Beeches, and nearly everybody in the party accepted her invitation to take one.

Mary chose a sea-serpent with a grinning face, and Elise a pretty oval one with birds and cherry blossoms on each side.

Lloyd did not take any.

Her hands were already filled with a huge bouquet of red roses.
"Sylvia asked me to carry these," she explained to Miles Bradford, "and to weah a white dress and this hat with the red roses on it.