The Second Violin

nother, C

y room in the rear, where Charlotte herself happened at that moment to be. In response people appeared from everywhere

he hall floor, in the centre of an interested group. He paused to glance up at his sister, where she had stopped

miling at the faces upturned toward her, which were smiling back,

ally. Lanse had but just arrived, having come on especially for th

he said, in her gentle way. "It's so unexpected to her, after sending out no invitatio

ther's friends, and how many from Andy's grateful pati

ered from some six feet in the air, where that nineteen-year-old's head was now c

sently he had the long parcel lying on the floor. At th

s he laid aside hat and overcoat and j

ndering what the gift could be. She discl

le for Andy!

Words came into view, hammered and beaten into the glinting me

Guests who Frequent it,'" read

t beautiful!"

nt may be awfully true--or otherwise; but what's the thing for? If anybody wanted to hint at an invitation to visit Andy and

appings, and everybody finally joined

d Charlotte. "I shall n

ngly. "You won't have to tell any lies. The

sincerity. "Copper things are very highly valued just no

he value of that idiotic old battered-up copper pail you cherish so tenderly, but that's be

as she had done every time a new gift arrived. There were a good many puzzles of this sort in connection with her wedding gifts. Where to put some of th

it. Perhaps he can use it somewhere in the surgery--as a delicate way of che

ng open, admitting Dr. Andrew Churchi

eeting. Even the eyes of the father and mother--and this, just now, was the great

and intense physical vigour. The face matched the body: it was fresh-coloured and finely molded; and nobod

heartily. "If this whirl of work they tell me you are in had kept up much longer, I should ha

or Churchill, laughing. "How long have you been home, Lan

picking up the débris of the unpacking and carrying it away. "There was a trail of

olding it at the stretch of his arms for inspection. Doctor Churchill turned and regard

t it?" he said, and

ing that may turn up! 'That's great!' is certainly safe and

side, where he examined the copper slab with attention. "Don't you believe th

nded to his. "Why, I beli

sen

n't fi

ad been made for that place. If it proves to fit, we can narrow the mystery down to the few

r pretty blond head shining in the October sunlight, Lanse and Jeff and Just, three stalwart fellows,

t room. They stopped opposite the fireplace, where Doctor Churchill was already triumphantly inserting th

on arose. Now that the odd gift was where it so clearly belonged, it

Moreover, so cunningly had it been designed and built tha

onally selected the "hardheads" of which the fireplace was constructed. A small bedroom, opening off the square l

could be spared for general use, had become at once the place upon which Charlotte was conc

off again. Just as Charlotte was leaving the room, however--the last of all, because she could not bring her

about to vanish, he ran a

I want to look at the new gift alone with you a

elight and the lamplight h

you, Charlotte? I hope--do you know, it's one of my pleasantest hopes--that our home i

oked up at h

he said, with gay tenderness. "You

I want to, Andy Churchill. This room--they shall find a w

red at first, but we'll show him it's a jolly place--Charlotte, I musn't get to dreaming day-dreams now, o

g, as she escaped from him and hurried to the door. "

uding both father and mother, in the old Virginia churchyard--the time could not come too soon. He had lived alo

quaintance, allowed to betroth himself to her, he had been asked to wait yet anot

those who loved her at home hardly grown up en

resulted in the early budding of very sweet and womanly qualities; and nobody, watching Charlotte

e in blossom, when Charlotte's wedding-day came; and with

ristocratic suburb, the news that Doctor Churchill and Miss Charlotte Birch wanted everybody who k

ice among all classes of people--felt left out or forgotten, and that, as the clock struck the hour

otte, looking, however, very much like one, as she st

s, two in more youthful but equally festive

n her pale gray silken gown: and little Ellen Donohue, a six-year-old protégée of the family, her ha

an infant like you. You look more suitable for a christening than for a marriage ceremony. Father's likely, when Do

merry. "As best man you should be saying comp

not old enough to enjoy being

est young woman I ever saw!" declared Just, with enthusiasm. "If

braids were prettier low on the white neck, in the girlish fashion in which they had long been worn, and Cel

like our Charlotte, and that's just the way we

making calls all the morning, the same as usual? Made 'em till the last minute, too. It isn't fifte

ly as they would, however, every one of them was watching Charlotte with anxiety, for it was the f

farther away than next door--this

endour was disturbed. "I ought to have been with him before this, only my infatuation for the bride makes my case difficult. You've heard of these fellows who hang about another c

brotherly embrace a short one, comprehending that much of that sort of thing would be

hill, an hour later as they waited in

teady," he answered. "Still--I'm a

him affec

by this day's work?" the doctor added; and Lanse felt a sudden lu

eling pretty rich, to-

streaming through the richly coloured windows upon the figures at the altar, touching Celia's bri

hundreds of eyes upon her. A quiet wedding breakfast followed, at which Doctor Forester and his son, the latter lately returned from a long period of stud

ve looked after that boy's food from the days when he ate nothing but porridge

y old association. It was the first vacation he had allowed himself during these four years of his practice, and his eyes had been sparkling as he planned it. They were sparkling again now, as h

all more or less brokenly said to him at last; and to each and al

rchill it was a