Cherry and Alix went upstairs after the ceremony as Alix and Anne had done a year ago, but there was deep relief and amusement in their mood to-day, and it was with real pleasure in the closer intimacy that the little group gathered about the fire that night.

After that life went on serenely, and it was only occasionally that the girls were reminded that Cherry was a married woman with a husband expecting her shortly to return to him.  When she and Alix took part in the village fairs and bazaars, Alix was still a little thrilled to see their names in print, “Miss Strickland and her sister Mrs. Lloyd, who is visiting her,” but to Cherry all the romance seemed to have vanished from her new estate.  November passed, and Christmas came, and there was some talk of Martin’s joining them for Christmas.  But he did not come; he was extremely busy at the new mine and comfortable in a village boarding-house.

It was in early March that Alix spoke to her father about it; spoke in her casual and vague fashion, but gave him food for serious thought, nevertheless.

“Dad,” said Alix suddenly at the lunch table one day when Cherry happened to be shopping in the city, “were you and Mother ever separated when you were married?”

“No—­” the doctor, remembering, shook his head.  “Your mother never was happy away from her home!”

“Not even to visit her own family?” persisted Alix.

“Not ever,” he answered.  “We always planned a long visit in the East—­but she never would go without me.  She went to your Uncle Vincent’s house in Palo Alto once, but she came home the next day--didn’t feel comfortable away from home!”

“How long do you suppose Martin will let us have Cherry?” Alix asked.

Her father looked quickly at her and a troubled expression crossed his face.

“The circumstances seem to make it wise to keep her here until he is sure that this new position is the right one!” he said.

“If I know anything about Martin,” Alix said, “no position is ever going to be the right one for him.  I mean,” she added as her father gave her an alarmed look, “I simply mean that he is that sort of man.  And it seems to me—­odd, the way he and Cherry take their marriage!  Now when she got here, five months—­six months ago,” Alix went on as her father watched her in close and distressed attention, “Cherry was always talking about going back to Mart—­every time he sent her money she would say that she ought to keep it for a sudden summons.  But she doesn’t do that now.  You’ve been giving her her own allowance right along, and she has settled down just as she was.  A day or two ago Martin sent her twenty dollars and she has gone into town to spend it to-day—­”

She hesitated, shrugged her shoulders.

“You think she ought to go back?” her father asked.

“No, I don’t think so!” Alix answered, eagerly.  “I don’t think anything about it.  But—­but is that marriage?  Is that really for better or for worse?  I mean,” she interrupted herself hastily, “as time goes on it will get harder and harder for her; there will seem to be less and less reason for going!  Mrs. Brown was talking to me about it yesterday, and she asked in that catty, smiling way she has—­”