be needed greatly
then, and had rather dreaded it; though from Miss Editha's pink cheeks
at the supper-party the night before, as she sipped her champagne I had
rather hoped that she was making up her mind to a time of it. And then
the joy of watching united Tolly and Edith! And Peter, how he would need
me to help him to be responsible for all the wonderful things that were
going to happen to him right along, now that he was the success of the
hour. Even the papers had begun to speculate that first morning on his
"next play."

"I'm weaving the laurel wreath rapidly now to bind your tresses, am I
not, dear, dearest Betty?" he had whispered, as he told me good night at
the hotel only a few short hours ago. Yes, I was needed in life, even if
not down in a brier-patch in the Harpeth Valley, Tennessee, and I must
bear my honors and responsibilities with as beautiful a spirit as Sam
bore his burden of Belgians. I would have all I could do out in the
world, and he would have his life full in the wilderness; but we would
be a thousand miles apart.

And just here a very strange thing happened. From the weak, cowering,
sobbing girl on the bench arose a very determined, red-cheeked,
executive young woman who walked over to the nearest ticket-office and
demanded of the brisk young clerk what time the different trains left
for Tennessee. She found that by going at ten o'clock direct through
Cincinnati she could reach Hayesboro two hours ahead of that Belgian
emigrant-train that was to go around through Atlanta. Then she went into
the dressing-room and got her wad of money out of her stocking, bought a
ticket and a Pullman berth, six magazines, some oranges, and a little
traveling powder-puff for the end of her red nose, and seated herself in
the train before she woke up and found she was I.

Then I took a hand and sent Peter a telegram from Philadelphia, though
to this day I can't remember what it said; and I settled down to the day
and night and part of another day's journey with peace in my heart and
the courage to take whatever was coming to me from Sam.

When you are doing a thing you know is wholly wrong it is best to make
up your mind beforehand just what kind of a right action you are going
to claim it to be. It only took me until Pittsburg to have my course
with Sam mapped out. I was just going to ask him fairly what right he
had to go to farming with a lot of strange and untried Belgians and
refuse to take me in, when