Hall, Mrs.
Walton visiting Allison in her beautiful Washington home, and Kitty had
gone to San Antonio for another visit with Gay Melville at the post. The
wedding was to be so very quiet and simple that she could not ask any of
them to come so far to be present, but she wished for them all over and
over.
Eugenia would have come had it not been that it was too far to bring
little Patricia for such a short visit, and she was not willing to leave
her behind. She wrote a long letter, recalling her own beautiful
wedding, at which Betty had been a bridesmaid, and added, "If you're
only half as happy as I am, Betty, dear, you'll never regret for an
instant giving up the grand career we all prophesied for you. But in
order to remind you that it is still possible for you 'to be famous
though married,' Stuart and I are sending you the most efficient
typewriter we can find in the shops. It has already gone on to await you
in Lone-Rock."
Ever since the arrival of the first gift, a little silver vase from Miss
Allison McIntyre, which would always suggest the donor's love of flowers
and her garden which she shared lavishly with the whole Valley, Betty
had been in a beatific state of mind over the loving favor showed her by
her friends. Her pleasure reached high tide, however, when the last one
arrived, a box marked from Warwick Hall. It was from Madam Chartley. The
box was so big that they made all sorts of wild guesses as to its
contents. Layer after layer of paper and excelsior were lifted out, and
all they could find was more wrappings. At last, from the very centre,
Alec lifted out a fragile cup and saucer, which Betty recognized with a
cry of astonishment and delight.
"One of the ancestral teacups! I didn't suppose Madam would part with
one of them for anybody!"
She turned the bit of delicate china so that Mrs. Sherman could see the
crest, and the motto, "I keep tryste." The note folded inside brought
happy tears to her eyes, for it said that she was the only one to whom
one of these treasured heirlooms had been given. Madam felt deeply that
a spiritual kinship existed between her old ancestor Edryn and the
little friend who had kept tryst so faithfully in all things.
Jack came at five o'clock. He was to be the guest of Oaklea, but most of
his time was spent at The Locusts. That night, when moonlight and
springtime filled the valley with ethereal whiteness and sweetness, he
and Betty sat out on the porch. Three gene
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