Lily Rose by taking advantage of a bargain sale on suits saved enough
from her trousseau to curtain the windows in dainty blue and white
muslin.
Derry then diverted the appropriation for an ingrain carpet to an
expenditure for shellac and paint with which he showed Amarilly how to
do the floors. Some cheap but pretty rugs were selected in place of the
carpet.
At last the Annex was ready for painting. Lily Rose wistfully stated
that she had always longed to live in a white house, so despite the fact
that the Jenkins house proper was a sombre red, the new part was painted
white.
"'Twill liven the place up," Amarilly consoled herself, while Colette
breathed a sigh of relief that the Annex was not to be entirely
conventional.
At Amarilly's suggestion, the woodwork was also painted white.
"Hard to keep clean," warned Amarilly, divided in her trend of
practicality and her loyalty to St. John's favorite color. White won.
The moment the paint was dry and the Annex announced "done," the Boarder
took Lily Rose to view their prospective domicile. They were
unaccompanied by any of the family, but it took the combined efforts of
Mrs. Jenkins, Amarilly, and Flamingus, whose recent change in voice and
elongation of trousers gave him an air of authority, to prevent a
stampede by the younger members.
Lily Rose returned wet-eyed, sweetly smiling, and tremulous of voice,
but the Boarder stood erect, proud in his possessions.
Colette vetoed the plan for Amarilly to settle in the absence of the
groom and bride.
"If you have it all furnished beforehand," she argued, "there will be
just so much more room to entertain in on the night of the wedding."
And then Lily Rose confessed that "she'd love to be 'to hum' in her own
place."
"But they won't be furnished," argued Amarilly.
"Oh, yes, they will," assured Colette. "It's etiquette--" she paused to
note Amarilly writing the word down in a little book she carried--"for
people to send their presents before they come, and you can settle as
fast as they come in."
The wedding gifts all arrived the day before the wedding. The base-
burner, though not needed for some months, was set up, because the
Boarder said he would not feel at home until he could put his feet on
his own hearth. John Meredith sent an oaken library table and an
easy-chair. Derry's offering was in the shape of a beautiful picture
and a vase for the table.