"Cherry is well, but just a little thin, and heart-broken now, of course. Martin never seems to stay at any one place very long, so I keep hoping--"
"Doesn't make good!" Peter said, shaking his head.
"Doesn't seem to! It's partly Cherry, I think," Alix said honestly. "She was too young, really. She never quite settles down, or takes life in earnest. But he's got a contract now for three years, and so she seems to be resigning herself, and she has a maid, I believe."
"She must love him," Peter submitted. Alix looked surprised.
"Why not?" she smiled. "I suppose when you've had ups and downs with a man, and been rich and poor, and sick and well, and have lived in half-a-dozen different places, you rather take him for granted!" she added.
"Oh, you think it works that way?" Peter asked, with a keen look.
"Well, don't you think so? Aren't lots of marriages like that?"
"You false alarm. You quitter!" he answered.
Alix laughed, a trifle guiltily. Also she flushed, with a great wave of splendid young colour that made her face look seventeen again. "Your father left you--something, Alix?" Peter asked presently, with some hesitation.
"That," she answered frankly, "is where Anne comes in!"