r Tremont had been so
touched and pleased when she proposed it. No, he could not be with them
this Christmas. He had taken Elsie to the south of France. She was not
very strong. Yes, Phil approved of her choice of names, but he said just
as soon as she was old enough he intended to buy her a monkey and name
it Dago, so that there would be one Patricia who was not afraid of such
a pet.[1]

FOOTNOTES:

[1: See "The Story of Dago" for an account of Phil's and
Stuart's childhood.]

Mary, who had watched with keen interest the unwrapping of the dozens of
beautiful wedding gifts at The Locusts, took a peculiar pleasure in
looking around for them now, and recognizing them among the handsome
furnishings of the different rooms. Heretofore the Locusts had been her
ideal of all that a home should be, but this far surpassed anything she
had ever seen in luxurious fittings.

As the girls followed their hostess over the house, with admiring
exclamations for each room, Mary thought with inward amusement of the
cold shivers she had had, as she stood with the bridal party between the
Rose-gate and the flower crowned altar, listening to the solemn vow: "I,
Eugenia,--take thee, Stuart--for better, for worse--" There had been no
worse. It was all better, infinitely better, and the shivers had been
entirely unnecessary.

Stuart came in presently, from a long round of professional visits. The
young doctor had nearly as large a practise as his father, and had been
riding all afternoon. Mary caught a glimpse of his meeting with Eugenia,
in the hall, and when he came in, cordial as a boy in his welcome, and
by numberless little courtesies showing himself the most considerate of
hosts and husbands, she thought again, "This is one time it was
_certainly_ all 'for better.'"

[Illustration: "SHE WAS A FASCINATING LITTLE CREATURE, ALL SMILES AND
DIMPLES."]

"Where is 'Pat's Pill'?" he asked, looking around for Phil. "That is
Patricia's name for him, as near as she can say it. Wouldn't you know
that she was a doctor's daughter, by giving her doting uncle a pill
for a name?"

Phil and Mr. Forbes came in together. To Betty, one of the pleasantest
parts of her visit was this meeting with the "Cousin Carl," who had
added such vistas of delight to her life by taking her to Europe the
year she was threatened with blindness. His hair was grayer now than
then, and the years had added a few lines to his kind face, but he was
not nearly so grave. H