"and we both kissed the
bride--"

"Sally! And she was such a dear sweet baby!" whispered Mrs. Toland, big
tears beginning to run down her cheeks.

"Ah, Mother!" Constance said soothingly, at her mother's knees.

"Sally's of age, of course," Jim argued soothingly, "and one couldn't
bring her home like a child. The thing would have gotten out, and she'd
have been a marked girl for life! There's really no _reason_ why they
shouldn't marry, and the boy--Keith, that is, put her into a carriage
quite charmingly, and they drove off. They'll go no farther than
Tamalpais or the Hotel Rafael, probably, for Keith has to be back at
work on Monday, and I made him promise to bring Sally here on Sunday
night."

"And what will they live on?" Mrs. Toland asked stonily.

"That isn't worrying them. Sally has--what? From those bonds of her
grandfather's?"

"Three hundred a year," Mrs. Toland said discouragingly.

"And Keith gets fifty-five a month. That's eighty--h'm!" pursued Jim.

"Well, some of us simply will have to help them," suggested Mrs. Toland,
with a swift, innocent glance at Miss Sanna.

"His father will have to help," Miss Toland countered firmly.

They presently adjourned to the dining-room, all still talking--even
Julia--of Sally. Sally would have to take the Barnes cottage, at fifteen
dollars a month, and do her own cooking, and her own sewing--

"They can dine here on Sundays," said Sally's mother, sniffing and
wiping her eyes.

"And wouldn't it be awful if they had a baby!" Jane flung out casually.

Every one felt the indelicacy of this, except Julia, who relieved all
Jane's hearers by saying warmly:

"Oh, don't say awful! Why, you'd all go wild over a dear little baby!"

Doctor Studdiford gave her a curious look at this, and though Julia did
not see it, Barbara did. After dinner the doctor and Barbara played
whist with the older ladies, and Julia sat looking over their shoulders
for a few minutes, and then went upstairs with Constance and Jane for a
long, delightful gossip. The girls must show her various pictures of
Keith and Sally, books full of kodak prints, and everywhere Julia saw
Jim, too: Jim from the days of little boyhood on to to-day, Jim as camp
cook, Jim as tennis champion, Jim riding, yachting, fishing; a younger
Jim, in the East at college, a small, stocky, unrecognizable Jim, in
short trousers and straw hat. And everywhere, with him, Barbara.

"That's when they gave a play--I was only fi