“Mardi Gras was a tiresome day, after all, she sighed, and Tante Louise agreed with her for once.”

“In the old French house on Royal Street, with its quaint windows and Spanish courtyard green and cool, and made musical by the plashing of the fountain and the trill of caged birds, lived Odalie in convent-like seclusion.”

“When one is shut up in a great French house with a grim sleepy tante and no companions of one’s own age, life becomes a dull thing, and one is ready for any new sensation.”

“It was Mardi Gras day at last, and early through her window Odalie could hear the jingle of folly bells on the [participants’] costumes, the tinkle of music, and the echoing strains of songs.”