and I made up my mind then and there not to have a pink
wedding. Finally, I chose green and white, and I'm glad now, because he
will look so much nicer."

"I think that was very sweet in you, Jessica," said Eleanor Savelli
decidedly.

"Some of us ought to tell Reddy of Jessica's thoughtfulness," teased
Anne.

"Just as though any of you would," replied Jessica, fondly surveying the
smiling faces of her friends.

"You are very sure of us, aren't you, Jessica?" said Grace gayly.

"And always shall be," answered Jessica simply. "Do you remember, girls,
when I was about fourteen how frightfully sentimental I used to be. I
read every love story I could lay hands on. I was forever imagining my
wedding day. My bridegroom was always tall and dark, with piercing black
eyes and a kingly air, and I always pictured myself as wearing a pink
satin dress and being married in church. Sometimes fate parted us at the
altar and sometimes we lived happily ever afterward. I used to plan that
on the day of my wedding I would lock myself in my room, put on my pink
satin dress and sit all day in rapt meditation. I would eat nothing, and
see no one, not even father, until the moment when I swept grandly out
into the hall and down the stairs to my carriage. Of course, I was
transcendently beautiful and there I were always two or three
disappointed lovers, who came to the church and cast sad, yearning eyes
upon me as I glided up the center aisle with my hero. I never dreamed,
then, that Reddy Brooks, my schoolmate and playfellow, was to be my
destiny," she continued, her eyes growing tender, "or that I should
begin my journey with him in our dear old parlor, surrounded by my
chums. I haven't the least desire to sit alone and moon and meditate. I
want all of you with me. It seems the most natural thing in the world
that I should walk down the same old stairs to the same old parlor to
meet the same old Reddy, just as I've done dozens of times before."

"It's five minutes to eight, girls," announced Miriam Nesbit. "Say
good-bye to Jessica Bright, and don't one of you dare to shed a tear."

One after another the girls embraced Jessica. Nora was last. She and
Jessica remained in each other's arms for a long, sweet moment. Their
devotion was as deep and true as that which existed between Grace and
Anne.

"Here are the flower girls. It's time, Jessica," said Grace softly, as
the two little girls who had been chosen to act in that capacity enter