hate me."

"_Mother!_"

"Not consciously. But I should be a barrier--and you'd find yourself
wishing for--freedom. If I let you go--you'll come back now and then--and
be--glad."

He gathered her up in his arms and declared fiercely that he would not
leave her, but she stayed firm. And so the thing was settled, and as soon
as he could settle his affairs at Crossroads he was to go to Austin.

Anne, writing to Uncle Rod about it, said:

"St. Michael is to marry the Lily-of-the-Field. You see, after all, he
likes that kind of thing, though I had fancied that he did not. She is
not as fine and simple as he is, and somehow I can't help feeling sorry.

"But that isn't the worst of it, Uncle Bobs. He is going back to New
York. And now what becomes of _his_ sunsets? I don't believe he ever had
any. And oh, his poor little mother. She is fooling him and making him
think that it is just as it should be and that she was foolish to expect
anything else. But to me it is unspeakable that he should leave her. But
he'll have Eve Chesley. Think of changing Nancy Brooks for Eve!"

It was at Beulah's wedding that Anne and Richard saw each other for the
last time before his departure.

Beulah was married in the big front room at Bower's. She was married at
six o'clock because it was easy for the farmer folk to come at that time,
and because the evening could be given up afterward to the reception and
a big supper and Beulah and Eric could take the ten o'clock train for New
York.

She had no bridesmaids except Peggy, who was quite puffed up with the
importance of her office. Anne had instructed her, and at the last moment
held a rehearsal on the side porch.

"Now, play I am the bride, Peggy."

"You look like a bride," Peggy said. "Aren't you ever going to be a
bride, Miss Anne?"

"I am not sure, Peggy. Perhaps no one will ever ask me."

"I'd ask you if I were a man," Peggy reassured her. "Now, go on and show
me, Anne."

"You must take Beulah's bouquet when she hands it to you, and after she
is married you must give it back to her, and----"

"And then I must kiss her."

"You must let Eric kiss her first."

"Why?"

"Because he will be her husband."

"But I've been her sister for ever and ever."

"Oh, but a husband, Peggy. Husbands are _very_ important."

"Why are they?"

"Well, they give you a new name and a new house, and you have new clothes
to marry them in, and you go away with them on a honeymoon."

"What's