If Anne was wrong, and the paper she held in her hand worthless, each girl would inherit a comfortable little fortune, but if Anne was right, Cherry and Alix would have only a few thousand dollars apiece, and the old home.

The business talk was over before any of them realized the enormity of Anne’s contention, and Anne and Justin had departed.  But both the old doctor and the lawyer agreed with Martin that it looked as if Anne was right, and when the family was alone again, and had had the time to digest the matter, they felt as if a thunderbolt had fallen across their lives.

“That Anne could do it!” Alix said, over and over.  Cherry seemed dazed, spoke not at all, and Martin had said little.

“People will do anything for money!” he observed once drily.  He had met Justin sternly.  “I’m not thinking of my wife’s share—­I didn’t marry her for her money; never knew she had any!  But I’m thinking of Alix.”

“Yes—­we must think of darling Alix!” Anne had said, nervously eager that there should be no quarrel.  “If Uncle Lee intended me to have all this money, then I suppose I must take it, but I 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 while.

“With Martin?  Oh, no,” Cherry answered, her eyes dried, and her packing going on composedly, although her voice trembled now and then.  “No, it’s just that I get bad moods,” she said, bravely.  “I was pretty young to marry at all, I guess.”

“Martin loves you,” Alix suggested timidly.