s-wise! And old
tapestry papers from Fredericks! And the spindle-chair and Fanny's
clock in the hall!"

"And the davenport in the dining-room, Anne,--there's no room in here,
and your tea-table at the fireplace, with your copper blazer on it!"

"Oh, Jim, we'll have a place people will talk about!" Anne would sigh
happily, after one of these outbursts. And when they made their last
inspection before really coming to take possession of the cottage, she
came very close to him,--Anne was several inches shorter than her big
husband-to-be, and when she got as close as this to Jim she had to tip
her serious little face up quite far, which Jim found attractive,--and
said, in a little, breathless voice:

"It's going to be like a home from the very start, isn't it, Jim? And
aren't you glad, Jim, that we aren't doing EXACTLY what every one else
does, that you and I, who ARE a little different, Jim, are going to
KEEP a little different? I mean that you really did do unusual work at
college, and you really are of a fine family, and I am a Pendeering,
and have travelled a lot, and been through Vassar,--don't you know,
Jim? You don't think it's conceited for us to think we aren't quite the
usual type, just between ourselves? Do you?"

Jim implied wordlessly that he did not. And whatever Jim thought
himself, he was quite sincere in saying that he believed Anne to be
peerless among her kind.

So they came to Jackson Street, and Anne made it quite as quaint and
charming as her dreams. For a year they could not find a flaw in it.

Then little enchanting James Junior came, nick-named Diego for
convenience, who fitted so perfectly into the picture, with his checked
gingham, and his mop of yellow hair. Anne gallantly went on with her
little informal luncheons and dinners, but she had to apologize for an
untrained maid now, and interrupt these festivities with flying visits
to the crib in the big bedroom that opened out of the dining-room. And
then, very soon after Diego, Virginia was born--surely the most
radiant, laughing baby that ever brought her joyous little presence
into any home anywhere. But with Virginia's coming, life grew very
practical for Anne, very different from what it had been in her vague
hopes and plans of years ago.

The cottage was no longer quite comfortable, to begin with. The garden,
shadowed heavily by buildings on both sides, was undeniably damp, and
the fascinating railing of the little balconies was undeni