as not even invited! I wanted to send
her an invitation, but Father said it would be better not to--she was
so hard and bitter against us that she would probably regard it as an
insult."

"He must have been mistaken about her attitude," said Mrs. Gordon. "It
certainly is a great pity she was not invited, but it is too late now.
An invitation sent two hours before the ceremony would be an insult
indeed."

"Not if the bride herself took it!" exclaimed Juliet impulsively.
"I'll go myself to Cousin Corona, and ask her to come to my wedding."

"Go yourself! Child, you can't do such a thing! In that dress...."

"Go I must, Momsie. Why, it's only a three minutes' walk. I'll go up
the hill by the old field-path, and no one will see me. Oh, don't say
a word--there, I'm gone!"

"That child!" sighed the mother protestingly, as she heard Juliet's
flying feet on the stairs. "What a thing for a bride to do!"

Juliet, with her white silken skirts caught up above grasses and dust,
ran light-footedly through the green lowland fields and up the hill,
treading for the first time the faint old field-path between the two
homes, so long disused that it was now barely visible in its fringing
grasses and star-dust of buttercups. Where it ran into the spruce
grove was a tiny gate which Miss Corona had always kept in good
repair, albeit it was never used. Juliet pushed up the rusty hasp and
ran through.

Miss Corona was sitting alone in her shadowy parlour, hanging over a
few of the bride roses with falling tears, when something tall and
beautiful and white, came in like a blessing and knelt by her chair.

"Cousin Corona," said a somewhat breathless bride, "I have come to
thank you for your roses and ask you to forgive us all for the old
quarrel."

"Dear child," said Miss Corona out of her amazement, "there is nothing
to forgive. I've loved you all and longed for you. Dear child, you
have brought me great happiness."

"And you must come to my wedding," cried Juliet. "Oh, you must--or I
shall think you have not really forgiven us. You would never refuse
the request of a bride, Cousin Corona. We are queens on our wedding
day, you know."

"Oh, it's not that, dear child--but I'm not dressed--I--"

"I'll help you dress. And I won't go back without you. The guests and
the minister must wait if necessary--yes, even Romney must wait. Oh, I
want you to meet Romney. Come, dear."

And Miss Corona went. Charlotta and the bride got her into