'Ah,' said Mrs. Bywank, 'that was Eve's fault! But with a man like Mr. Rollo, Miss Wych, it will be your own if it gives you much trouble.' 'Things generally are, that do,' said Hazel. But she sighed a little, putting her face closer down in her hands. 'Byo,' she said after a pause, getting hold of the old housekeeper's hand now and laying her face there, 'it is very, very hard to have it so soon! I have not thought,—I am not ready,—I feel just as if I should fly!—' There was no gainsaying part of this, and Mrs. Bywank tried petting and coaxing instead of reason, for awhile. 'But think how lonely Mr. Rollo is, Miss Wych,' she said, trying a diversion. 'Think what a two months he has had just now!' 'I am thinking about myself,' said the girl shortly. 'And I am thinking about your cake,' said Mrs. Bywank. 'If it was a little earlier, I'd go at the raisins to-night.' Wych Hazel started up with an exclamation. 'Now stop!' she said. 'If you begin to make a bit of fuss, I shall run away. Who wants cake? People can eat cake at other times, I suppose.' 'I suppose they can,' said Mrs. Bywank laughing, 'but this is a good time too. You must have your cake.' 'There will be no dress to stand with it,' said Hazel. 'The cake will feel lonely—like me.' Mrs. Bywank sighed a little, stroking the pretty head. 'My dear,' she said, 'you will be dressed, whatever you wear.' 'Can you guess how?' said Wych Hazel. 'I have not heart to put on a white dress. And I could not get a new one here, if I wanted it,— and I could not have it made up, if I did. And I wouldn't, if I could.' 'No,' said the old housekeeper, 'so my dear mistress said. "Bywank, it will be dreary work for my little Wych to choose her own wedding dress all alone. I must get it for her." Then she sat and thought awhile—"No," she said,—"the white would turn yellow, and the dark would fade." And she stopped for a good while then,' said the old housekeeper in a trembling voice; 'but by and by she spoke up, soft and tender—"Bywank, if it is so,—if it should be so,—tell her to take some one she has; and give her my veil.—And when she is wrapped in my love—and Dane's love—she will not mind the dress." And you were asleep on her lap all the while, my dear.' Hazel was sobbing quietly in the old housekeeper's arms before the words were ended; but then she rose up, and kissed Mrs. Bywank on both cheeks, and went away. And for awhile she felt better,—tears and coaxing can sometimes do much. She went to bed and to sleep, prepared to wake up next morning and do her duty, and be a pattern of all the wise, steady, and practical virtues. Instead of which, Miss Wych opened her eyes upon more freaks than had come at her call for many a day.