"It is too bad that 'Mother' Eldon can't come on for the wedding. And we have to go right through to the far West without stopping off because Douglas must get to his work. But someway, I imagine from her letter that she is not real happy about her boy's getting married at all. Perhaps it is just as well for her to get used to the idea before we meet, though Douglas is just silly enough to say that she will love me when she sees me and that she couldn't help it. Well, if he loves me, that is enough for me."
The last page contained a brief account of wedding preparations. No mention was made of the pearls. "There is no use in trying to write it all down," Jannetje Van Meter had written at the close. "And to write of my thoughts and feelings about this change in my life, or about us, I simply couldn't. I believe that I will tear up my diary, anyhow! This is _Finis_."
Jannet Eldon was smiling as she finished. Her mother was just a real girl, after all. She hadn't lived to be very old. How Jannet wished that she had not burned the diary. Where had she gotten the impression that her mother would be buried among the Van Meters? Why, of course, it would be natural, if she had died before her husband. But if she had been carried off in an epidemic, that would be the reason why her grave would be out West. Then "Gramma" would want her son buried in the Eldon lot. That was it. Jannet had once visited that spot, in company with Miss Hilliard. There was no mystery there; besides, her father and mother were together now, wherever, apart, the worn-out bodies were. One of the lovely things about Miss Hilliard was that she had made the other world so real to Jannet.
Suddenly Jannet rose and went to one of the drawers of the highboy in which her own treasures now reposed. Rummaging through things not yet well sorted, Jannet found a note book and drew out several sheets of writing paper pinned together. True to her promise, Miss Hilliard had looked up past correspondence, which recalled facts that she had forgotten. But she and Jannet had not had time to go over it very thoroughly.
Jannet recalled dimly having labored over a few lines to her grandmother, because she "ought to," One of the teachers helped her. Here was the reply, or part of it: