_The Lute of the Holy Ghost Breaks His Fast_ In his cautious approach to the Daggin house, he came upon her unawares--a slight, slender, shapely thing of pink and golden flame, as she poised where the sun came full upon her.

One hand clutched her flowing blue skirts snugly about her ankles; the other opened coaxingly to a kitten crouched to spring on the limb of an apple-tree above her.
The head was thrown back, the vivid lips were parted, and he heard her laugh low to herself.

Near by was a towering rose-bush, from which she had broken the last red rose, large, full, and lush, its petals already loosened.

Now she wrenched away a handful of these, and flung them upward at the watchful kitten.

The scarlet flecks drifted back around her and upon her.