The wedding cake was four stories high , and Dick looked perfectly handsome . He kissed me too , right after he kissed Aunt Tommy . So everything turned out all right , and I believe Dick would never have dared to speak up if we had n't helped things along . But Jacky and I have decided that we will never meddle in an affair of the kind again . A Millionaire 's Proposal Thrush Hill , Oct. 5 , 18 -- . It is all settled at last , and in another week I shall have left Thrush Hill . I am a little bit sorry and a great bit glad . I am going to Montreal to spend the winter with Alicia . Alicia -- it used to be plain Alice when she lived at Thrush Hill and made her own dresses and trimmed her own hats -- is my half-sister . She is eight years older than I am . We are both orphans , and Aunt Elizabeth brought us up here at Thrush Hill , the most delightful old country place in the world , half smothered in big willows and poplars , every one of which I have climbed in the early tomboy days of gingham pinafores and sun-bonnets . When Alicia was eighteen she married Roger Gresham , a man of forty . The world said that she married him for his money . I dare say she did . Alicia was tired of poverty . I do n't blame her . Very likely I shall do the same thing one of these days , if I get the chance -- for I too am tired of poverty . When Alicia went to Montreal she wanted to take me with her , but I wanted to be outdoors , romping in the hay or running wild in the woods with Jack . Jack Willoughby -- Dr. John H. Willoughby , it reads on his office door -- was the son of our nearest neighbour . We were chums always , and when he went away to college I was heartbroken .
The vacations were the only joy XXXXX my life then .
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