The Little Colonel: Maid of Honor

ody lamented the fact that they were driven indoors. Rob and Joyce began a game of chess in the library. Lloyd and Phil turned over the music in

mpleted, to make her a dress, and the seamstress was at work upon it now. So it was a gay, rose-colored world to Mary this morning, despite the leaden skies and pouring rain outside. Not only was she to have a dress, the material for which had actually been brought

ng in the arch between the hall and the drawing-room, and i

with whom she would change places. There had been times when she would have exchanged gladly with Joyce, thinking of the artist career ahead of her, or with Betty, who was sure to be a famous author some day, or with Lloyd, who seeme

rs, saw him also, and came running down the steps, followed by Eugenia. The old Colonel, hearing the call, "The mail's here," opened the door of his den, and joined the group in the hall whe

charms for the

ed the layer of jeweller's cotton and disclosed

ditional charms that must be baked in a bride's cake? It is a token of the fate

must the bri

lling and a

arm good luc

pinster's han

und the shilling shortly came into an inheritance. True, it didn't amount to much,-about five pounds,-but the coincidence firmly convinced Eliot of the truth of the superstition. In this country people usually tak

was Aunt Patricia's old shilling! I'd swear to it. See the way the hole is punched, just between those two ugly old heads? And I remember the dent jus

djusting his glasses, he examined it carefully. "Ah! Most interesting," he observed. "Coined in the reign of 'Bloody Ma

ous and fond

and Mary on

dear," he said to Eugenia with a smile. Then he laid it on t

tory is going to repeat itself, and shall look around for a ladye-love named Mary. Now I know a dozen songs with that name, and such things always come in handy when 'a fr

lf-conscious little Mary just behind him. Nobody saw her face grow red, however,

bly intended for a watch-fob. There was a four-leaf

at a dear Stuart was to take so much trouble to get th

ght of that other rhyme that brides al

g old, som

rrowed, some

lace that was on my mother's wedding-gown will be the something old. I thought I'd bor

e lend you my little pearl clasps to fasten your veil, and then for the something blue, t

said Rob. "As if it made a particle of difference w

s, and Rob made his escape to the library, calli

me to scan its index. She was looking for the songs Phil had mentioned, which contained her name. At the same time

and chairs could be put out again. Now voices sounded just outside the window where she sat, and the creaking of a screw in the post told that some one was sitting in the hammock. Evidently it was Lloyd, for Phil's voice sounded nearer

al things, just the trifles of the hour; and she caught only a word now and then as sh

t to wear something blue as wel

asked

that Mary looked up, wonde

sked Llo

oft minor key, and his answer, when it finally came, seemed at

he-rock, and the story that that old Norwegian told about Alaka, the gam

es

stening alertly. The mystery of

s away, couldn't go to the School of the Bees, and learn that line from Watts about Satan finding mischief for idle hands to do. And Joyce said yes, it was too bad for a fine fellow to get into trouble just because he was a drone, and

to exclaim in astonishment: "Yes, I remembah, but how undah the sun, Phil Tremo

re, she told me all about it like the blessed little chatterbox that she was. Then, when I saw plainly that I had forfeited my right to your friendship, I did not wait to say good-by, just left a message for yo

he said, 'Alaka has lost his precious turquois

rstand what I

uessed at yo

e. I went away vowing I would win back your respect and make myself worthy of your friendship, and I can say honestly that I have kept that vow. Soon after, while I was out on that first surveying trip I came a

they almost downed me, but I say it in all humility, Lloyd, this little bit of turquoise kept me 'true blue,' and I've lived straight enough to ask you to take it now, in token that you do thi

stone he offered, and

oo, now. I didn't need this to tell me how well you've been doing since you

for you," he added. "There will be

n in the way of jewelry, you know. I couldn't take it as a ring. Now just this little unset stone"-she hesitated. "Just this bi

like that, and make a careful explanation about it? Besides, you can't tell him that it is only a friendship stone. I want it to mean more than that to you, Lloyd. I wan

ion. Lloyd felt the blood surge up in her face and her heart throbbed so fast she could

Take it back, please;

at?" asked Phil,

in much confusion, "unless you knew the story

some kind. I think you'll have to make it clear to me why yo

desperately. "It was like this. No, I can't tell it. Come in th

esides, some one would interrupt us in there, and I w

d, and we were all in such trouble about it that we vowed we'd be old maids. Afterward it was the cause of our forming another club t

mise," ag

rince, provided she could weave a mantle that should fit his royal shouldahs as the falcon's feathahs fit the

d him to be a prince, and wove her web to fit his unworthy shouldahs. Of co'se when the real pri

one who happened to take her fancy-a shepherd boy and a troubador, a student and a knight. W

ve her a silvah yahdstick on which was marked the inches and e

he loom is just the length to fit his shouldahs. But let him not persuade thee to cut it loose and give it to him as thy young fingahs will be fain to do. Weave on anothah yeah and yet anothah, t

cut the golden warp from out the loom, until I, a woman grown, have woven such a web as t

upon her, she rode away beside the prince, and evah aftah all her life

hed, so long that the silence began t

ling me what the measure was your fat

es. He must be clean an

u to break your promise to your father, and you wouldn't do it even if I did. So there's nothing more for me to say

at the wedding if you want me to, as my bit of s

ll the other fellows at a distance, too. That's something to be cheerful over. But you mark my words-I'm doing a

n singing softly the "Bedouin Love-song," "From the desert I come t

e stars

sun gr

aves of th

unf

two eventful occasions they rode over it together. She sat quite still in the hammock, with the bit of turquoise clasped t

a different way; for with a guilty start she realized that s

d to face any one just then, and afraid that her guilty face would betray the fact to Phil and Lloyd that she shared their secret, she hurried out of the library and up to her room, where Joyce was rearranging her hair. In response to Joyce's question about her coming up so early in t

now, and then I got so interested, it was like reading a story, and I couldn't go away because I forgot there was such a person living as me. But Lloyd mightn't understand how it w

this put matters in a different light. All her sympathies were enlisted in Phil's behalf now. She liked Phil the best, and she wanted him to have whatev

and should find Phil pacing the room with impatient strides because the maid of honor had gone off with Sir Feal to the opera or somewhere, in preference to him, on

uotation. In looking through the dictionary the day before, her eye had caught one from Shakespeare, which she had stored away in her memor

s wondrously

le temper has

n her, and she would encourage him. Then, she didn't know yet exactly in what way it could come abou

ht some day see that page, she omitted all names, using only initials. It would have puzzled the Sphinx herself to have deciphered that entry, unless she had guessed that the initials stood for titles instead of names. The last paragraph conclud

rgot to give you Alex Shelby's message, Lloyd. Joyce and I met him on our way to the post-office. He was walking with

aptures very much," added Joyce. "Her face show

think moah of Mistah Shelby than any one who has evah gone to see her, and she is old enough now to have

ener. "I knew it! I told you so! All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't make me believe