Gretel laughed.
“I don’t believe she would,” she said, “and even if she did, I shouldn’t mind a bit. I’d rather be with Barbara than any one else in the world.”
“Well, you are a queer girl,” said Geraldine, looking rather incredulous. “Miss Heath is all right, and very nice for a teacher, but I can’t imagine wanting her round all day long. Why, the two nicest things about her getting married are that we won’t have any more lessons this spring, and that you are to stay with us for a whole month, while she goes on a wedding trip.”
“But Miss Heath won’t be a teacher when she’s married,” suggested Jerry. “I think she’ll be a very nice person to live with. I wouldn’t mind one bit living with her myself.”
“Mind!” cried Gretel, indignantly; “who could possibly mind? Higgins says she considers it a great privilege to live with such a lovely young lady, and I think I’m the luckiest girl in the world to have her for a sister.”
“Here come the carriages,” announced Jerry, springing down from the railing, where he had been perched beside his twin. “Oh, I hope they’ll be ready soon. Where’s Mr. Douane, Gretel?”
“He’s going to meet us at the church,” said Gretel. “He said good-by to me at the hotel, and I put a flower in his button-hole. He looked perfectly splendid.”
Geraldine said she would go and see if the bridal party were nearly ready, and forthwith departed up-stairs, returning in a moment with the joyful intelligence, that they were really coming at last.
“You and I are to go in the carriage with Father and Mother, Jerry,” she explained. “Miss Heath wants Gretel to go with her and her uncle. She really does look lovely, even if she hasn’t got a train, or white satin, or anything grand.”
“She couldn’t have a wedding dress like that,” said Gretel, “because, in the first place, there wasn’t any way of getting one made down here, and then she and Percy are going right off in the train as soon as the wedding is over.”