ed the new-made husband up, limp as a rag, and laid him
tenderly on the sofa. TEDDY and the minister withdrew, and the Honeymoon
commenced.

ARCHIBALD began to recover. "Where am I?" he moaned faintly.

"You're married," said ANN.

He groaned, and wiped the perspiration from his pallid brow.

"Can I go home?" he inquired feebly.

"Yes," replied ANN. "Go, and when I want you I'll come for you. Tell
your _dear_ BELINDA that ANN BRUMMET, the poor relation, has got ahead
of her on _this_ heat. She didn't think, did she, when she was courting
you, that she was only just getting you ready for me?"

But before she was through, ARCHIBALD, moaning in broken accents that he
wished he was dead, had rushed frantically from the house.

ANN was congratulating herself on her success, when there came another
rap from TEDDY.

"Sure and it's your lawyer this time. Will I sind him away?"

"No," said ANN, "I want to see him. And bring in some oysters and
sherry. I'm getting hungry."

"Well," said the lawyer, entering and taking a chair familiarly, where's
your man?"

"Gone," said ANN.

"What! without the divorce? Whew! that's _too_ bad. How did it happen?"

"JEFF didn't come," replied ANN. "He sent a substitute. But I wasn't
going to be fooled that way, so I just drafted _him_ instead."

"What! _married_ him?" queried the lawyer, incredulously.

"Yes, why not? DIGBY was here, you see, and I could not find it in my
heart to cheat the poor man out of a job, with a large family on his
hands, too." And she laughed.

"Well, that _is_ a joke," was the lawyer's reply. And he rubbed his
hands appreciatively. "Who is the fellow? What's his name?"

"BLINKSOP," said ANN, "ARCHIBALD. Oh, won't there be a row," she
chuckled. "He's engaged to my cousin BELINDA, you see."

At this juncture TEDDY entered with the oysters and sherry.

"Come," said ANN to the lawyer, "sit up here and have something to eat,
and I'll tell you all about it. TEDDY," she continued facetiously, "will
you ask a blessing?"

TEDDY closed his eyes reverentially.

"For what I'm going to resayve out of this," said he, "may I be truly
thankful, and, oh Lord! I wish 'twas more." And he went out with a
solemn air.

"Did I understand you to say," inquired the lawyer, after he had
animated his diaphragm with two glasses of sherry, "that this BLINKSOP
is engaged to your cousin?"

"Yes," replied ANN, struggling with a very large oyster. "I call her
cousin, but th