xclaiming, but when I did she looked
queer and quiet; however, I didn't let that at all affect the nice crisp
crust that had hardened on me overnight. And I must say that if Corn-tassel
wasn't happy that evening surrounded by the edition of masculine society
that Matt had so carefully expurgated for her, she ought to have been.

By that time I had told Matthew about his approaching marriage, accepted
his bear-hug of joy, delivered before Bess and Polly and Owen and Belle,
and I had been congratulated and received back into the bosom of my friends
with great joy and hilarity.

"Now I can take care of you forever and ever, Ann," whispered Matthew in
his good-night, with his lips against my ear. And there in his strong,
sustaining arms, even though limp with fatigue, I knew I never did, could,
or would, love anybody like I loved him. I don't really suppose I did hear
Polly sob on her pillow beside mine, where she had insisted on reposing.
She must have been all right, for she was gone out into the rural district
with Matthew before I was awake the next morning.

After Annette had served mine and Bess's chocolate in Bess's bedroom we
settled down to the real seriousness of trousseau talk, which lasted for
many long hours.

"Now if I sell you back all the things of yours I haven't worn for two
hundred and fifty dollars that will leave you over three hundred in the
bank to get a few wash frocks and hats and things to last you until you are
enough married to Matthew to use his money freely," said Bess after about
an hour of discussion and admiration of her own half-finished trousseau.

"Yes; I should say those things would be worth about two hundred and fifty
dollars now that they are third-hand," I answered Bess's excited eyes,
giving her a look of well-crusted affection, for there are not many women
in the world, with unlimited command of the material that Bess has, who
would not have offered me a spiritual hurt by trying to give me back my
thousand dollars' worth of old clothes which she had not needed in the
first place when she bought them.

"Now, that's all settled, and we'll begin to stretch that three hundred
dollars to its limit. We won't care if things do tear, just so they look
smart until you and Matthew get to New York. Matthew won't be the first
bridegroom to go into raptures over a thirty-nine-cent bargain silk made
up by a sixty-dollar dressmaker. I'm giving Owen a few deceptions in that
line myself. That