Just as Miss Eppie had suggested, Juliet went in to Allan and together they had a good cry--when it had passed Juliet found that though her heart was still heavy, something in her had lifted.

"I won't ever forget," she said. "But I shan't be afraid to dream again."

Juliet wrapped herself in her shawl and went to sit on the porch--the evening was deepening into night and the streetlights came on one by one, like huge fireflies in the twilight. It was there Mona found her, gazing into the distance at the night-shrouded trees, spinning tentative new dreams and hopes.

She didn't notice Mona sit down beside her--she didn't notice Mona look up at her tremblingly--Juliet didn't even see Mona beside her until the girl had put her own hand on top of Juliet's, pulling her back from her place in the clouds. But Mona, who was already very ashamed of herself, thought Juliet was ignoring her--and why shouldn't she? Mona was quite aware of how sulky she'd been these past months--and quaked in her boots. But screwed her courage to the sticking-place and said,

"I have come to apologize."

Juliet landed back in the real world with a thud, but smiled and gave a small laugh. "There's no reason to apologize, Mona dear. I should have come to thank you. If you hadn't broken that window and come in to me, I could have died--too."

She said this matter-of-factly but there was an edge of tears in her voice. Mona felt even more ashamed.

"I have come to apologize," she cried. "And--to confess! Oh, Juliet, I know I've been a brat to you these past months--my behavior was unforgivable. And--Juliet--when I first heard you were going to have a baby I was so jealous--I prayed that--that something would happen--and it did. You already had so much! I had so little. It was wicked--wicked--and I don't expect God or you to forgive me. I'm sorry, now. When I saw you in a pitiful heap on the floor I knew right away what had happened--and that it was my fault." Mona buried her face in her hands and wept, expecting a torrent of fury to be unleashed upon her--or else a calm, deadly silence. But there was neither--Mona heard something else--Juliet was laughing.

"You blamed yourself!" she sighed. "And I blamed myself for what happened--and Allan blamed himself--and Maggie told me she even blames herself for not coming over earlier to see why I hadn't called. Mother blames herself for letting me move so far away, and Aunt Ilse blames herself for not hiring us a nurse. Doug blames himself for not knowing something had happened to me--but Mona! I've realized something: it's nobody's fault."

Mona lifted her head. "But--it was such a wicked prayer--!"

"It was wicked of you," Juliet said gently. "But do you really think that God would listen to such a wicked prayer? What happened would have happened whether or not you had wished it so. Mona, I do forgive you. And I want to say that I'm sorry as well. It's so--I mean, it was so easy for me to forget that not everyone is as happy as I am--or was. I've always been guilty of that--of flaunting my happiness like a diamond ring, oblivious to how those around me feel. It's a very bad habit. Mona, I'd like to be your friend. No more of this sniping and backbiting. Let's just like each other, and not fight. It's as simple as that."

"All right," Mona agreed simply. "I already like you--and I always have. But now we're more equal somehow--now that we've both lost something we loved. Juliet, I want to tell you my story. It's long and it's sad, but it's all I can give you to let you know why I behaved so. Will you listen to it?"

"Yes," said Juliet.

* * *

"I met Barry Ashbury when I was just a little, little girl--younger than Melanie," Mona began. "We went to the same school--St. Agnes's--only he went there because the Ashbury's are one of the best families in town, and I went for free because my Father taught history there. He wanted me to get the best education possible, and thought that because we all wore uniforms, no one would notice if I didn't have as much money as they did. But they did, of course, and laughed at my scuffed shoes and hand-me-down blazers. I would have been better off if Papa had just sent me to the public school down the road. It's not like I did anything with my education anyway." Mona gave a bitter laugh.

"I didn't have many friends," she went on. "Except for Barry. He was a year ahead of me and very smart himself--but I still trounced him in a school geography bee. He was so angry to have been beat that he threw a fit and kicked the wall afterwards--and then turned to me and said that he was going to marry me one day. He said I wasn't beautiful--I'm not--but he couldn't abide stupid women and I was the smartest girl he'd ever met. Only," Mona laughed, "he made me promise that I'd let him look smarter when we were out in public."

"Well, anyway," she continued. "Obviously the Ashbury's didn't mind when their small son said he was going to marry the poor Cash girl--he was only a boy. But he got older--he became a man--and he kept saying it. I was still smart as a whip, and I'd gotten beautiful to boot. That's what Barry said. The day I turned eighteen he proposed. That was in November 1941.

"A year later, war broke out. The Ashburys were already in uproar about our engagement, but Barry wouldn't break it off. He wanted to enlist--I didn't want him to--but they pushed him into it. No one expected the war would be as bad as it actually was, and Barry's family thought if he was far away from me, he'd lose interest. He'd come home and marry a girl better suited for him, and I'd marry a boy better suited for me.

"Barry wouldn't marry me before he went because he wanted to prove his family wrong--he thought he'd come back--and he wanted to show them that even though he'd been away he hadn't forgotten me, he still loved me. But Juliet--I already felt like he was my husband--I know it was wrong--but I couldn't let him go without showing him how much I loved him. I was afraid. He was my only love. I thought he would come back, too, but I was so afraid. You wouldn't have done such a thing.

"Barry didn't come back. He was killed in the Pacific, in the Philippines, only a few weeks after he went. And then everyone saw that I was going to have a baby and oh, I was so disgraced. The school kicked me out. The Ashbury's said that--that the baby wasn't Barry's. My own parents--they were good people, Juliet, but you have to remember that it was such a disgrace. They threw me out, too--it was mostly my mother's doing. And then Papa died, and I knew Mother wouldn't take me back.

"Melanie was born and we lived in--in a shelter. For unmarried mothers. It was terrible--I had no one. That's where Maggie found me--she volunteered there after her Dennis died. Everyone was gossiping about me, wondering who the father was. No one believed it was Barry. But Maggie--dear, wonderful Maggie--took me in and let me live with her.

"When Melanie got older, it was clear that she was Barry's girl after all. She has those clear blue eyes, with the flecks of gold--those are the Ashbury eyes. And a dent in her chin that's just like his. People started talking about that, and Mrs. Ashbury--Barry's mother--met with me, in private, and gave me a sum of money--but I couldn't tell anyone the truth. She didn't want to talk to me ever again. The money was to be used to take care of my daughter--and Barry's daughter. So I'm a millionaire, Juliet, but even still I have no one. I have a brother, you know, we're twins like you and Douglas, but when my mother died he didn't even tell me. He didn't want me to go to the funeral--he was ashamed of me.

"So that's my story and a very sad one it is, and I can see you're crying and I'm sorry, Juliet. But I wanted you to know why I hated you at first-- I was jealous of your happiness. I thought you would take Maggie from me. It was wicked of me to treat you so. But when Maggie dies I'll have no one in the world--except Melanie--who cares about me!"

Juliet sat in silence for a while, but her hand crept over and covered Mona's trembling one.

"You'll always have me, dear," she said.