The week of the wedding arrived. It proved a feverish time for them all. The days flew swiftly. The two preceding weeks had been a mad rush, so they all thought, and they now decided that these last days fittingly capped the climax. For the girls, this last week brought the important—but up to now, neglected—event of school opening strongly to their attention. It was to take place three days after the wedding. There was need to plan and prepare for that as well.
It was Mary Lee who found time to be of help to everyone. The excitement left her untouched. There were things she also had to plan and do, yet she proved a blessing to the harrassed and distracted bride who preferred her help to that of anyone else. The girl also was able to help Mrs. Cameron whose responsibilities as matron and hostess were great. Ruth, too, usually independent, welcomed her help. As for Letty, full of the excitement of these days, it required all of Mary Lee's strength of mind to counteract the desire of the former to stay up night after night to discuss the coming events. Mary Lee was the necessary balance for such a nature as Letty's.
With all this, Mary Lee set to work to carry out certain other plans that had nothing to do with either of the two important events. And, strangely, too, she was able to enlist the services of Dr. Anderson at this time.
That poor man, with each day's nearer approach to the event found himself of less and less importance. There was little opportunity to see his fiancee who was enmeshed in numberless engagements with dressmakers and, so it seemed to him, with everybody in town but himself.
Mary Lee found him in this frame of mind on the morning she called at his office, only three days before the wedding. She had been surprised to find that he would be glad to see her at any time, when she called him on the telephone.
"I didn't dare expect that I could see you so soon," she apologized after greetings had been exchanged. "All I could do was to hope for it."
The doctor, however, gave no sign of being very busy. On the contrary, he seemed to indicate that he had prepared for a long and pleasant visit with her.
"I haven't a thing to do," he remarked. "I turned over my practice for the next two months to Dr. Stewart on the presumption that I could be fairly useful to her and because, so I thought, of the opportunities I would have to see her. Then, too, I had a large number of things that required attention.
"And," he added with a wry face, "I have found plenty of time to attend to the things that required attention, for, lo and behold, I find her without any time for me and the kind of help I can give her, she doesn't need. So you see, Mary Lee, I have lots of time on my hands and am glad of the chance to see any friends who have time for me."
"Dr. Anderson," the girl came directly to the subject nearest her heart, "I wondered if you would not know someone who perhaps would be in need of the services of a girl like myself for after school hours."