Chapter XXIX
Diana’s Wedding
“After all, the only real roses are the pink ones,” said Anne, as she tied white
ribbon around Diana’s bouquet in the westward-looking gable at Orchard Slope.
“They are the flowers of love and faith.”
Diana was standing nervously in the middle of the room, arrayed in her bridal
white, her black curls frosted over with the film of her wedding veil. Anne had
draped that veil, in accordance with the sentimental compact of years before.
“It’s all pretty much as I used to imagine it long ago, when I wept over your
inevitable marriage and our consequent parting,” she laughed. “You are the bride
of my dreams, Diana, with the ‘lovely misty veil’; and I am YOUR bridesmaid.
But, alas! I haven’t the puffed sleeves—though these short lace ones are even
prettier. Neither is my heart wholly breaking nor do I exactly hate Fred.”
“We are not really parting, Anne,” protested Diana. “I’m not going far away.
We’ll love each other just as much as ever. We’ve always kept that ‘oath’ of
friendship we swore long ago, haven’t we?”
“Yes. We’ve kept it faithfully. We’ve had a beautiful friendship, Diana.
We’ve never marred it by one quarrel or coolness or unkind word; and I hope it
will always be so. But things can’t be quite the same after this. You’ll have other
interests. I’ll just be on the outside. But ‘such is life’ as Mrs. Rachel says. Mrs.
Rachel has given you one of her beloved knitted quilts of the ‘tobacco stripe’
pattern, and she says when I am married she’ll give me one, too.”
“The mean thing about your getting married is that I won’t be able to be your
bridesmaid,” lamented Diana.
“I’m to be Phil’s bridesmaid next June, when she marries Mr. Blake, and then
I must stop, for you know the proverb ‘three times a bridesmaid, never a bride,’”
said Anne, peeping through the window over the pink and snow of the
blossoming orchard beneath. “Here comes the minister, Diana.”
“Oh, Anne,” gasped Diana, suddenly turning very pale and beginning to
tremble. “Oh, Anne—I’m so nervous—I can’t go through with it—Anne, I know
I’m going to faint.”