Well, the picnic occurred a day or two later, and after that Mr. Hazeldine seemed to be always coming over to us, or a party of us going to the Valley House for tennis, or a gipsy tea, or something or other. But from the beginning there was never any doubt about Mr. Hazeldine and Freda. He didn't pretend to think of anybody but her. Indeed his adoration was so embarrassing that we were always glad when, after a few minutes, they would go mooning off down the sycamore alleys, or round the pond at the garden-foot, and relieve us of their presence. It made the boys very contemptuous of poor Jim. Hugh used to say that if he thought he could ever look like that he'd hang himself; and as for Donald, his scorn for the man who could prefer the company of a girl to a man's company--by which, I suppose, he meant his own--was something too crushing. Freda looked lovely in those days, paler even than usual, but somehow as if there were a light burning inside the whiteness. I think it was really only about four weeks from that day Freda and I went to the Valley House that Jim spoke, but we thought it very long. It was the first love affair we had had in the family, and it embarrassed us all. I'm sure Aline and Pierce did their best to be very business-like when Jim broke in on them one day and announced that Freda had accepted him, and he wanted to be married before the summer was over. But there was no real difficulty in the way. Mrs. Doyne knew all about Jim, and after he had gone over to England to see his father and mother and tell them about Freda, they wrote saying how sorry they were not to be able to take the long journey to see their son married, but that they looked forward to seeing Freda afterwards, which seemed very satisfactory, though the letters read rather stiltedly. That might be, however, because they were English people. I had a kind of idea at the time that Lady Hazeldine resented her favourite boy being married by a wild Irishwoman. However, that may have been fancy, but we thought it a little odd that none of them came to the wedding. Jim came back from London that time simply laden with the most beautiful gifts, not only for Freda but for the smallest child in the house, and for Oona, and the little maids, and some of the poor people about, whose acquaintance he had made. We all agreed that Jim and Freda were well matched, for she was always good at giving, though her few pretty things were dear to her. We received Jim's gifts rapturously, but he would say laughing: "Don't thank me. Wait till you see the pretty things I'll send you from India, when I have Freda to help me choose them." And Freda looked on at his giving and his promises with a grave delight, as if he were fulfilling wishes of hers which had long been denied. It was really such a wonderful thing to have money going round in the family at last.