pass."

Their suspense did not last very long after this. Mr Ruthven's weekly
letters became more hopeful after the third one, and soon Will wrote
himself, a few feeble, irregular lines, telling how his friend had
watched over him, and cared for him like a brother, during all those
weeks in his dreary, city lodging; and how, at the first possible
moment, he had taken him home to his own house, where Mrs Millar, his
mother, was caring for him now; and where he was slowly, but surely,
coming back to life and health again. There was no hope of his being
able to be home to Harry's marriage, but unless something should happen
to pull him sadly back again, he hoped to see the last of Rosie Elliott,
and the first of his new brother Charlie.

There were a few words meant for Graeme alone, over which she shed
happy, thankful tears, and wrote them down for the reading of their old
friend, "Brought face to face with death, one learns the true meaning
and value of life. I am glad to come back again, for your sake Graeme,
and for the sake of the work that I trust I may be permitted to do."

After this they looked forward to the wedding with lightened hearts. It
was a very grand and successful affair, altogether. Amy and her
bridesmaids were worthy of all the admiration which they excited, and
that is saying a great deal. There were many invited guests, and
somehow, it had got about that this was to be a more than usually pretty
wedding, and Saint Andrew's was crowded with lookers-on, who had only
the right of kind and admiring sympathy to plead for being there. The
breakfast was all that it ought to be, of course, and the bride's
travelling-dress was pronounced by all to be as great a marvel of taste
and skill, as the bridal robe itself.

Harry behaved very well through it all, as Arthur amused them not a
little by gravely asserting. But Harry was, as an object of interest, a
very secondary person on the occasion, as it is the usual fate of
bridegrooms to be. As for the bride, she was as sweet and gentle, and
unaffected, amid the guests, and grandeur, and glittering wedding gifts,
as she had always been in the eyes of her new sisters, and when Graeme
kissed her for good bye, she said to herself, that this dear little
sister had come to them without a single drawback, and she thanked God
in her heart, for the happiness of her brother Harry. Yes, and for the
happiness of her brother Arthur, too, she added in her heart