There is a screen at the foot of my bed, put there so the light won’t bother me and so I won’t be seen.  And, thinking I am asleep, Miss Katherine and Miss Webb talk on as if I were dead; and it’s very interesting the things they talk about.

Of course, Miss Webb came over last night, and, after talking about two hours, she said:  “Oh, I forgot to tell you.  Lizzie Lane is going to marry Bob Rogers, and right away.  I don’t suppose you’ve heard.”

“Yes, I have; Lizzie wrote me.”  And Miss Katherine took the hair-pins out of her hair and let it fall down her back.  “What made her change her mind?  What is she marrying him for?”

“How do I know?” And Miss Webb tasted the chocolate to see if it was sweet enough.

“How does anybody know what a man is married for?  In most cases you can’t risk a guess.  Lizzie is a woman, therefore ’hath reason or unreason for her act.’”

“How did it happen?  What made her change her mind?” and Miss Katherine threw her hair-pins on the bureau and stooped down to get her slippers.  “How does Lizzie explain it?”

“She says she was so sleepy she doesn’t remember whether she said yes or no.  But Bob remembers, and the wedding is to be week after next.  He’s courted her three times a year for seven years; but since he’s been living North he hasn’t even written to her, and she didn’t know he was in town until he came up that night to see her.

“He stayed until after one o’clock, and didn’t mention marriage.  But as he got up to go he told her his house was going to send him on a six months’ trip to Japan.  If she would marry him and go, say so.  If not, say that, too, but for the last time.  Lizzie said she’d go.”

Miss Katherine fastened her kimono, put her feet up on the chair in front of her, and clasped her hands behind her head.

“I don’t wonder at the unhappy marriages,” she said.  “The queer part is there aren’t more of them.  Why did Bob wait eight years to talk to Lizzie like this?  Why is it a man has so little understanding of a woman?”

“Why?  Because he’s a Man.  The Lord made him, and there must be some reason for him; but even the Lord must sometimes get worn out at his dumbness.  However—­”

She stopped, for the chocolate was boiling over; then she began to sing: 

    “Before marriage, men love most. 
    After marriage, women best. 
    Marriage many changes makes—­
    Heart is happy or heart breaks.”

And she sang it so many times that I went to sleep and dreamed the dream I love most.

I see hundreds and hundreds of little creatures (they are the Mary part of little children), and they are afraid and shivering and standing about, not knowing where to go or what to do.  And then Miss Katherine is in the midst of them, smiling and beckoning, and they follow and follow, and wings come out.  Just tiny ones at first, and then larger and larger, and presently they fly all around her, and she points the way, smiling and cheering.