s anybody in Banbridge. Carroll wa'n't the only
one that hadn't paid him, not by a long-shot. He guessed some of them
that talked about Carroll had better look to home. He called Carroll
a gentleman, and any time when anything happened that his carriage
wa'n't on hand when the train come in, he was ready an' willin' to
drive him up, or any of his folks, an' if they didn't have a quarter
handy right on the spot, he wa'n't goin' to lay awake sweatin' over
it."

Rawdy's testimony prevented Blumenfeldt, the florist, from asking for
his pay in advance, as he had intended. He and his son and daughter,
who assisted him in his business, decorated the church and the
Carroll house, and wagons laden with palms and flowers were
constantly on the road. Tuesday, the day before the wedding, was
unusually warm. Banbridge had an air of festive weariness. Everybody
who passed the church stopped and stared at the open doors and the
wilting grass leaves strewn about.

Elsa Blumenfeldt, in a blue shirt-waist and black skirt, with the
tightest of fair braids packed above a round, pink face, with eyes so
blue they looked opaque, tied and wove garlands with the stolid
radiance of her kind. Her brother Franz worked as she did. Only the
father Blumenfeldt, who was of a more nervous strain, flew about in
excitement, his fat form full of vibrations, his fat face blazing,
contorting with frantic energy.

"It iss ein goot yob," he repeated, constantly--"ein goot yob." Not a
doubt was left. When he came in contact with Carroll he bowed to the
ground; he was full of eager protestations, of almost hysterical
assertions. All day long he was in incessant and fruitless motion,
buzzing, as it were, over his task, conserving force only in the heat
of his own spirit, not in the performance of the work. Meanwhile the
son and daughter, dogged, undiverted, wrought with good results,
weaving many a pretty floral fancy with their fat fingers. Eddy
Carroll had taken it upon himself to guard the church doors and
prevent people from viewing the splendors before the appointed time.
All the morning he had waged war with sundry of his small associates,
who were restrained from forcible entry only by the fear of the
Blumenfeldt family.

"Mr. Blumenfeldt says he'll run anybody out who goes in, and kick 'em
head over heels all the way down the aisle and down the steps," Eddy
declared, mendaciously, to everybody, even his elders.

"I think you are telling a lie, lit