dding. Anne, of course, was to
be bridesmaid, as had been arranged when they were twelve years old, and
Gilbert was coming from Kingsport to be best man. Anne was enjoying the
excitement of the various preparations, but under it all she carried a
little heartache. She was, in a sense, losing her dear old chum; Diana's
new home would be two miles from Green Gables, and the old constant
companionship could never be theirs again. Anne looked up at Diana's
light and thought how it had beaconed to her for many years; but soon it
would shine through the summer twilights no more. Two big, painful tears
welled up in her gray eyes.

"Oh," she thought, "how horrible it is that people have to grow up--and
marry--and CHANGE!"

Chapter XXIX

Diana's Wedding

"After all, the only real roses are the pink ones," said Anne, as she
tied white ribbon around Diana's bouquet in the westward-looking gable at
Orchard Slope. "They are the flowers of love and faith."

Diana was standing nervously in the middle of the room, arrayed in her
bridal white, her black curls frosted over with the film of her wedding
veil. Anne had draped that veil, in accordance with the sentimental
compact of years before.

"It's all pretty much as I used to imagine it long ago, when I wept over
your inevitable marriage and our consequent parting," she laughed. "You
are the bride of my dreams, Diana, with the 'lovely misty veil'; and
I am YOUR bridesmaid. But, alas! I haven't the puffed sleeves--though
these short lace ones are even prettier. Neither is my heart wholly
breaking nor do I exactly hate Fred."

"We are not really parting, Anne," protested Diana. "I'm not going far
away. We'll love each other just as much as ever. We've always kept that
'oath' of friendship we swore long ago, haven't we?"

"Yes. We've kept it faithfully. We've had a beautiful friendship, Diana.
We've never marred it by one quarrel or coolness or unkind word; and
I hope it will always be so. But things can't be quite the same after
this. You'll have other interests. I'll just be on the outside. But
'such is life' as Mrs. Rachel says. Mrs. Rachel has given you one of
her beloved knitted quilts of the 'tobacco stripe' pattern, and she says
when I am married she'll give me one, too."

"The mean thing about your getting married is that I won't be able to be
your bridesmaid," lamented Diana.

"I'm to be Phil's bridesmaid next June, when she marries Mr. Blake, and
then I must