... Then came those now historic dances, the starvation parties, where rank told nothing, and where the only refreshment that came in, that intoxicant — a woman's voice and eyes. Then came the Dies Irae , when the Southern Rachel sat in the ashes of her desolation and her homespun was sackcloth. And even then she rose supreme. By her desolate hearth, with her larder empty, and only her aching hea...