"I say, let's celebrate. Let's go over to Tamalpais. We've never taken that scenic trip. We'll make a whole day of it, have lunch at the inn." Still, in her centuries of rest, the Sleeping Beauty lay along the ridge. "Look at the old girl, isn't she clear? I was always a bit uncertain about her nose, but there it is. Quite a feature; looks as if she were sniffing this gorgeous day. Well, do we sniff too?"
Anne smiled and put her gardening things on their shelf by the door.
"Can't, dear, not to-day. Mamma's been waiting for me to come up and finish that house dress. To-day's the best for her. Pretty soon I won't have a thing I can wear."
"I wish you wouldn't do so much sewing, Anne. Can't you buy baby things and—and maternity clothes? I'd a lot rather you did or would hire somebody, than refuse to go on picnics with me," he ended with a pleading, boyish look, that did not influence Anne in the least. It seemed hardly the time to suggest buying clothes or hiring help.
"Yes. But it's so much cheaper. I don't mind sewing."
Roger felt his pleasure in the picnic die. "All right, honey, run along if you really want to. But let's go to somewhere for dinner to-night. I feel spaghetti-ish. How's Ramillotti's?"
"Let's wait and see how we feel then," Anne parried. "A celebration that's all cut and dried beforehand isn't much of a celebration, is it?"
And then, because Anne did look so pretty in her big gardening apron standing in the full sunshine, Roger picked her up and kissed her.
"Don't sew too hard and get all tired out. I think I'll go down to the library for a while. There's a lot of reading I've been wanting to do for a long time. I'll get a chance now."
Until Anne reached Hilda's front door, she wondered what she would do if her mother were out. She could scarcely sit on the front steps and she would not go back. But she was just in time. Hilda was half way downstairs when Anne rang.