"Colette, I know--I have always known in spite of your endeavor to have me believe otherwise--anything really true and genuine appeals to you. I--" "But I haven't told you yet," she said, seized with an unaccountable shyness, "what your part is to be. The Boarder, Lily Rose, and naturally all the Jenkinses, want you to perform the ceremony. The Boarder, being shy and retiring, forbore to ask you, and Amarilly for some reason desired me to ask you if you would officiate, and I assured her you would gladly do so." "I should have felt hurt," replied John with a happy smile, "if they had asked anyone else to marry them. And you will be there, Colette?" "Certainly," she declared. "I wouldn't miss it for anything." "And--you will go with me, Colette?" She colored, and her eyes drooped beneath his fixed gaze. "Yes," she said, "I will go with you." "Thank you, Colette," he answered gently, realizing what a surrender this was, and deeming it wise not to follow up his victory immediately. And at his reticence Colette was conscious of a shade of disappointment. She began to feel an uncomfortable atmosphere in the silence that ensued, so she broke it, speaking hastily and confusedly. "Oh, John, there is something else they want of you. The request is made by unanimous desire that you wear their surplice--that awful surplice!" A shadow not unlike a frown fell athwart John's brow, and he made no immediate reply. The introduction of the unfortunate topic made them both self-conscious, and for the first time Colette acknowledged to herself that she had been in the wrong in the matter of the surplice. John, misinterpreting her constraint, and fearing that the reference to the garment had revived all her old resentment, arose to depart. "I will wear it if they wish," he said stiffly. "I, too, wish you would wear it," she said in a voice scarcely audible. He looked at her in surprise, hope returning. "To please them," she added, coloring. "Colette!" There was a pleading in his voice that told her all she longed to know. "Colette, don't you think I have been patient? Won't you be friends again?" "I will," she said, "after--the Boarder's and Lily Rose's wedding!" CHAPTER XXII Work on the Boarder's Annex was begun with frantic zeal, each and every member of the Jenkins family lending a helping hand. The Boarder, as boss carpenter, worked after switching hours until it grew dark; then the children took turns, in holding a lantern for him. The savings of the Boarder being taxed by the trip to "Niagry" and the furnishing of the apartment, great economy had to be exercised in the erecting of the Annex. He strictly adhered to his determination not to touch the "rainy day fund."