No leaf remains on any bough of the forest, no scarlet streamer of brier flaunts from the steadfast rocks that underlie all verdure, and now stand out, bleak and barren, the truths and foundations of life, when its ornate glories are fled away.

It is the curse of such places that evil flaunts itself before the eye and cannot be overlooked, while the good retires in its modesty, so that at times we scarce dare hope that it is there.

And unsexed women facing heated blasts And Tophet fumes, and fluttering tongues of fire; And virtue staked on most unholy casts, And honour sold for hire: Squadrons and troops of girls of brazen air, Tramping the tainted city to and fro, With feverish flauntings veiling chill despair And deeply-centred woe.

Or will you lie during still noons up among the farmers' fields where myriad bandrol corn-poppies flaunt over your head, and stain your finger-tips with the red berries that hang like globes of light in the palace-gardens of mites and midges, soaking yourself in hot sunshine and south-winds and heavy aromatic earth-scents?" "Come!" said Mrs. Laudersdale, rising earnestly, like one in an eager dream.

She donned a gown and bonnet of black in testimony of her bereavement, but there was no unnecessary flaunt of crape in her decently symbolic garb.

" "It does, for I just left her, and she's a wicked flaunt of womanly happiness.