shan't be happy unless things are arranged so that Alix shall be
COMFORTABLE!"

"B-but the worst of it is, Alix!" Cherry stammered, suddenly, on
the day before she and Martin were to return to Red Creek, "I--I
counted on having enough--enough to live my own life! Alix, I
can't--I can't go back!"

"Why, my darling--" Alix exclaimed, as Cherry began to cry in her
arms. "My darling, is it as bad as all that!"

"Oh, Alix," whispered the little sister, trembling, "I CAN'T bear
it. You don't know how I feel. You and Dad were always here; now
that's all gone--you're going to rent the house and try to teach
singing--and I've nothing to look forward to--I've nobody!"

"Listen, dear," Alix soothed her. "If they advise it, and
especially if Peter advises it when he gets back, we'll fight
Anne. And then if we win our fight, I'll always keep the valley
house open. And if we don't, why I'm going to visit you and Martin
every year, and perhaps I'll have a little apartment some day--I
don't intend to board always--"

But she was crying, too. Everything seemed changed, cold and
strange; she had suspected that Cherry's was not a successful
marriage; she knew it now, and to resign the adored little sister
to the unsympathetic atmosphere of Red Creek, and to miss all the
old life and the old associations, made her heart ache.

"There's--there's nothing special, Cherry?" she asked after a