Every now and then her mind would halt suddenly in the perusal of the blessings that were hers to wonder almost wistfully if it were not all too beautiful, too dear, to last.
Sometimes she marveled that, after so long and persistently keeping love out of her busy life, she should have at length come into its purest realization.

Once the very thought of it had irked and distressed her.
Now she experienced a sense of deep surprise that she had been so blind.
Her Golden Summer had indeed descended upon her in all its radiant glory.

She rejoiced in the long peaceful mornings spent with her mother on the vine-clad veranda, or in the clematis-wreathed summer house at the end of the garden.

They were busy mornings, too, filled with the joy of preparing the countless dainty odds and ends, so necessary to her trousseau.

Their hands never idle, they talked long and earnestly of the things which lay nearest their hearts, and a strange peace, which Grace's naturally restless temperament had never before known, enveloped her like a mantle.
Though anxious to meet her friends again in New York City, Grace had sighed with genuine regret at leaving this new-found peace and departing from Oakdale on the most momentous shopping tour she had ever before set out to make.