orm the ceremony, and the
wedding will be at the Flippins' farm.

"It seems, of course, too good to be true. Not many women have such
luck. Not my kind of women anyway. We meet men as a rule who want
us to be gilded girls, and not golden ones. But Mark wants me to be
gold all through. And I shall try to be---- We are to live on his
ranch, a place that passes in California for a farm--a sort of
glorified country place. Mrs. Flippin is teaching me to make
butter, so that I can superintend my own dairy, and I have learned
a great deal about chickens and eggs.

"I am going to be a housewife in what I call a reincarnated
sense--loving my house and the things which belong to it, and
living as a part of it, not above it, and looking down upon it.
Perhaps all American women will come to that some day and I shall
simply be blazing the way for them. I shall probably grow rosy and
round, and if you ever ride up to my door-step, you will find me a
buxom and blooming matron instead of a golden girl. And you won't
like it in the least. But my husband will like it, because he
thinks a bit as I do about it, and he doesn't care for the woman
who lives for her looks.

"I shall come and see Flora before I go West. But I am going to be
married first. We both have a feeling that it must be now--that
something might happen if we put it off, and nothing must happen. I
love him too much. Of course you won't believe that. I can hardly
believe it myself. But I have someone to climb the heights with me,
Georgie, and we shall ascend to the peak--together."

For a wedding present George sent Madge the pendant he had bought for
Becky. To connect it up with Madge's favorite color scheme, he had an
amethyst put in place of the sapphire. He was glad to give it away.
Every time he had come upon it, it had reminded him of things that he
wished to forget.

Yet he could not forget. Even as Becky had thought of him, he had
thought of her; of her radiant youth on the morning that Randy had
arrived; at the Horse Show in her shabby shoes and sailor hat; in the
Bird Room in pale blue under the swinging lamp; in the music room
between tall candles; in the garden, with a star shining into the still
pool; that last night, on the balcony, leaning over, with a yellow
lantern like a halo behind her.

There were other things that he thoug