o--I will not compromise you in that way. Let me come to see you
some time when it is all over, when your good uncle can come too. He
will bring me; perhaps. And now give my best respects to the lady--I
forget her name, and say to her for me, that if she is as thoughtful of
other people as you are, you deserve to be a very happy couple."

Jack shook the little man's hand and went his way. He was sorry and
he was glad. He was also somewhat ashamed in his heart. It was not
altogether himself who had been thoughtful of other people. But for
Peter, perhaps, he might never have paid the visit.

As the blissful day approached Geneseo was shaken to its centre, the
vibrations reaching to the extreme limits of the town. Not only was
Moggins who drove the village 'bus and tucked small packages under the
seat on the sly, overworked, but all the regular and irregular express
companies had to put on extra teams. Big box, little box, band box,
bundle, began to pour in, to say nothing of precious packages that
nobody but "Miss Grayson" could sign for. And then such a litter of cut
paper and such mounds of pasteboard boxes poked under Miss Felicia's
bed, so she could defend them in the dead of night, and with her life
if necessary, each one containing presents, big and little; the very
biggest being a flamboyant service of silver from the head of the house
of Breen and his wife, and the smallest a velvet-bound prayer-book from
Aunt Kate with inter-remembrances from MacFarlane (all the linen, glass,
and china); from Peter (two old decanters with silver coasters); from
Miss Felicia (the rest of her laces, besides innumerable fans and some
bits of rare jewelry); besides no end of things from the Holker Morrises
and the Fosters and dozens of others, who loved either Ruth or Jack, or
somebody whom each one or both of them loved, or perhaps their fathers
and mothers before them. The Scribe has forgotten the list and the
donors, and really it is of no value, except as confirmation of the fact
that they are still in the possession of the couple, and that none of
them was ever exchanged for something else nor will be until the end of
time.

One curious-looking box, however, smelling of sandalwood and dried
cinnamon, and which arrived the day the ceremony took place, is worthy
of recall, because of the universal interest which it excited. It was
marked "Fragile" on the outside, and was packed with extraordinary care.
Miss Felicia superintended