“Do not have any fear, mamma, that I will ever ask for a wedding that would be so grudgingly given,” said Dexie, with quiet dignity; “but I think I have already fairly earned my wedding, if that is the way you choose to put it.  I hardly think anyone will ever hear you suggest that Gussie must earn her wedding before her marriage can take place, and I think I have been as good a daughter to you as Gussie has—­I have tried to be, anyway, mamma.”

“Gussie will never have the low tastes and plebeian ways that have made you such an eyesore to me.  She is too much of a lady to delight in the domestic economy that you always aspired to, and when her time comes I shall see that she has a wedding that shall fill your heart with envy!” said the now thoroughly angry woman.

“I think that will not be possible, mamma,” said the low, quiet tones, so unlike the Dexie of old.  “It is not to the wedding I am looking forward with so much happiness, but to the loving husband I shall gain thereby, and the future happy life I shall spend with him.  I am thankful to say that I do not need a grand wedding to make me perfectly happy,” and Dexie left the room, her face white and sad as the result of the interview.

Gussie soon learned the true state of affairs, and Dexie had reason to be thankful that Guy had not spoken at an earlier day.

To most mothers, the few months or weeks previous to a daughter’s marriage, the heart is full of loving consideration for her; the new position which her daughter is soon to fill arouses all her tenderness, and she is full of love that is not unmixed with pity.  But mothers are not all cast in the same mould, and Mrs. Sherwood thought of Dexie’s marriage only in the light in which it affected herself.  Dexie was a necessity in the household, and she would see that Dexie had no spare moments; she must make herself doubly useful, and prepare for their future comfort; and as Gussie held to the same opinion, only declared it more frequently, Dexie had anything but an easy time of it.

One day when Gussie was harping on the same string, yet found it impossible to get Dexie to tell of her future plans, she retorted: 

“Well, I think you have acted shamefully!  I wonder what Hugh McNeil will say when he hears you have thrown him over again!—­but I warned him!  I told him just how you had been flirting with Traverse, and I am quite sure Hugh spoke to him about it, too!  But you have been like the dog in the manger—­you would neither take Hugh yourself nor give anyone else the chance of getting him.  I might have had the benefit of his money if it had not been for you!  I suppose you think you are smart to ‘cut out’ Guy Traverse’s city girl, but it just shows how mean you are, though I can’t see for the life of me what any man sees in you to admire!”

Dexie looked at her sister with flashing eyes.  She longed to tell her what a ridiculous mess of mistakes she had got into.  But what was the use! she would not give way to her temper if she could help it, though it was a temptation hard to resist.