"And after all," Sally went on, eagerly, "what could he offer you? Cliff is--he's devoted to you, and he's steadiness itself! And I do believe you would be perfectly contented if you just put the other thing out of your mind, and tried to make the greatest happiness possible out of your new life! Lydia and Pa, and all of us, and Ruth and Teddy are all so happy about it And you know there's no safety like the safety of being married to a good man!" Martie laughed. "You're quite right, Sally! But," she added, her face growing serious again, "the terrible thing is this: If I marry Cliff, I do it--just a LITTLE--with other things in view. The children, as you say, and the good opinion of the town, and Pa's happiness, and Len's prosperity, and the pleasure of being mistress of the old house, and dear knows what! Of course I LIKE Cliff--but I tell you frankly that I'm looking even now to the time when our honeymoon shall be over, and the first strangeness of--well, of belonging to him is over!" Sally's face was flaming. She had stopped working, and both sisters faced each other consciously. "In other words," smiled Martie, "I wish I had been married to him ten years ago, and by this time had little Sally and Cliffy--" "Oh, dearest, I do hope there are children!" Sally said eagerly. "I hope so, too!" Martie said simply. And with suddenly misting eyes Sally heard her say softly, half to herself, "I want another girl!" Then her lip trembled, and to the older sister's consternation she began to cry, with her shining head laid on her arms. "I don't know w-w-what to do, Sally!" she sobbed. "I don't know what is right! I know I'm desperately tired of worrying and fretting and being criticised! I don't see why it should be my life that is always being upset and disorganized, while other women go on placidly having children and giving dinners!" "Perhaps because you are so different from other? women?" Sally suggested, somewhat timidly. She was not sure that Martie would like this. But Martie gave her a grateful glance, and immediately dried her eyes with a brisk evidence of returning self-control. "Well!" she said sensibly. "It is that way, anyhow, and I have to make the best of it. I married foolishly, in some ways, and I paid the price--nobody knows what it was! Then I came back here, and had really worked out a happy life for myself, when Cliff came along, and no sooner was I adjusted to Cliff--to the thought of marriage again, when John upset it all!" "The happiness of the woman who marries Cliff ought to be pretty safe," offered Sally.