Archie took his head in his hands.

"Candy, I'm trying, I'm really trying to understand you. But don't expect me to jump for joy because of your choice."

"This is a very serious thing to do, Candy," Annie said mildly. "Marriage is forever, you know. For the rest of your life!"

"That's exactly what I want!" Miss White exclaimed.

Her friends looked at her, as if she were crazy. There was a long and heavy silence, and the freckled girl's eyes started to fill with tears.

"Candy, listen," Cornwell made himself calm down with a great deal of effort and continued in a soft-spoken manner. "Okay, so you've decided so. Okay, let's assume he's being nice to you now. Wants to take your fancy. But there's no need to rush! Why don't you wait for, like, a year? And if he remains nice to you, then get married?"

"It's reasonable, Candy!" Annie supported Archie. "People don't make such decisions in a rush."

Candy started up. Her eyes were shining with asurge of anger. What was the matter with her?

And then she said something she immediately regretted saying. It came out so spontaneously…

"And how do people make such decisions?! Like you, huh? Waiting for something for ten years and then break up? You just want to separate us! You won't!"

Annie turned pale, and Archie looked at Candy as if he had never seen her before.

"You… you have become just like him!" Miss Brighton delivered a verdict. "Repulsive, angry and rude!"

"Well, fine!"

Candy went out of the café at a brisk pace, having slammed the door.

They had no right to insult him! She asked them! Several times!

Although, she shouldn't have said that. What kind of friend is she? Those words were totally not what she wanted to say… Why did she do this? But she really worries about them…

Totally upset, Miss White went upstairs and, having entered her apartment, hugged the teddy bear.

Just like him… Fine, so be it!

…Neil Legan was sitting at the table in his room decorating the last invitation card. When he returned home after a hard day in the office,he immediately got down to these invitations. Gotta do everything by himself, so that everything is top-level. Gotta keep an eye on every single bow and prepare the engagement by himself, doing all that woman stuff. But there was no other way. He couldn't trust anyone. Even his own mother.

Madam Elroy came in without knocking.

"What is this rag that you're wearing?"

"It's not a rag, it's a handkerchief," Daniel replied calmly, writing the last word on the card deliberately long. Only then did he stand up to show respect.

"Sure… That's her present, isn't it?"

"Yes. And even if she'd given me a slipknot, I would've put it around my neck with the same enthusiasm," the old lady's grandson added. Madam Elroy looked in Neil's eyes in surprise and suddenly met the look that was just as fierce as hers.

Two pairs of brown eyes were looking angrily at each other, but Legan's eyes were more severe and piercing, and the old woman was the first to shift her gaze.

She suddenly felt old and tired. Her time had passed – the time when she could decide the fates of Andrew and Legan families with a single turn of her head, with a single sigh. Neil, who had always been so gentle and polite, didn't respect her any longer.

"I get it. I will not interfere. Besides, you are an adult, and you know what you're doing."

"Then why are you here?"

It also hurt her, but she didn't say anything.

"I wanted to ask. Will you write to William?"

"I didn't want to, but I did already. Formally, we are inviting everyone."

Formally! Yes, this is what she had taught them… Of course, Neil disliked Albert. His arrival brought only humiliation to Daniel's engagement… But Madam Elroy loved her good-for-nothing little boy, who adored animals and didn't want to do what a person of his status was supposed to do.

And now he had gone again… Some where far away. Everyone was abandoning her – Antony, Stear… And now, Neil had become strange to her. Elisa would soon get married and move to her husband…

"Write to him, please," she said, trying to keep her voice steady.

"I already did."

The old woman stood up to leave. She could feel that Neil was trembling with impatience, waiting for her to go away.

But Elisa and her brother used to visit her all the time, drinking tea and having a good time together… They loved her. Or did they not?

"I wish you happiness," Madam Elroy whispered, leaving the room.

Maybe he heard her, maybe not. What really mattered was that she really wished her grandchildren happiness…