e nearer to him. Why it is that the
minute that man comes near me I get warm and comfortable and stupid, and
as young as Billy, and bubbly and sad and happy and cross, is more than
I can say, but I do. I never possibly know how to answer any remark that
he may happen to make, unless it is something that makes me lose my
temper. His next remark was the usual spark.

"Better give them the run of the garden--alone, Mrs. Molly. No chance
for them unless you do," he said laughingly, "or the buttons, either,"
he added under his breath so I could just hear it. I wish Mrs. Johnson
could have heard how soft his voice lingered over that little
half-sentence. She is so experienced she could have told me if it
meant--but, of course, he isn't like other men!

There are lots of questions I'm going to ask Alfred after I'm married
to him.

"Oh, you Molly," came a hail in Tom's voice from the gate, just as I was
making up my mind to try and think of something to wither the doctor
with, and he and Ruth Clinton came up the front walk to meet us. I
wondered why I was having a party in my house when being alone in my
garden with just a neighbour was so much more interesting, but I had to
begin to enjoy myself right off, for in a few minutes all the rest came.

I don't think I ever saw my house look so lovely before. Mrs. Johnson
had put all the flowers out of hers and Mrs. Cain's garden all over
everything, and the table was a mass of soft pink roses that were
shedding perfume and nodding at one another in their most society
manner. There is no glimmer in the world like that which comes from
really old polished silver and rosewood and mahogany, and one's
great-great-grandmother's hand-woven linen feels like Oriental silk
across one's knees.

Suddenly I felt very stately and granddamey and responsible as I looked
at them all across the roses and sparkling glass. They were lovely
women, all of them, and could such men be found anywhere else in the
world? When I left them all to go out into the big universe to meet the
distinctions that I knew my future husband would have for me, would I
sit at table with people who loved me like this? I saw Pet Buford say
something to Tom about me that I know was lovely from the way he smiled
at me; and the judge's eyes were a full cup for any woman to have
offered her. Then in a flash it all seemed to go to my head, and tears
rose to my eyes, and there I might have been crying at my own party if
I hadn