the rear, heard, turned, and walked
thoughtfully away. "They're off," said she--she had acquired a sporting
tinge of thought from Shuey Cardigan. "If with that start he can't make
the running, it's a wonder."

"I have invited Mr. Winslow and his mother to dinner," said Miss
Hopkins, in the morning. "Will you come too, Maggie?"

"I'll back him against the marquis," thought Margaret, gleefully.

A week later Lorania said: "I really think I must be getting thinner.
Fancy Mr. Winslow, who is so clear-sighted, mistaking me for Sibyl! He
says--I told him how I had suffered from my figure--he says it can't be
what he has suffered from his. Do you think him so very short, Maggie?
Of course he isn't tall, but he has an elegant figure, I think, and I
never saw anywhere such a rider!"

Mrs. Ellis answered, heartily, "He isn't very small, and he is a
beautiful figure on the wheel!" And added to herself, "I know what was
in that letter she sent yesterday to the marquis! But to think of its
all being due to the bicycle!"

The Marrying of Esther

BY MARY M. MEARS

"Set there and cry; it's so sensible; and I 'ain't said that a June
weddin' wouldn't be a little nicer. But what you goin' to live on? Joe
can't git his money that soon."

"He--said he thought he could manage. But I won't be married at all if I
can't have it--right."

"Well, you can have it right. All is, there are some folks in this town
that if they don't calculate doin' real well by you, I don't feel called
upon to invite."

"I don't know what you mean," sobbed the girl. She sat by the kitchen
table, her face hidden in her arms. Her mother stood looking at her
tenderly, and yet with a certain anger.

"I mean about the presents. You've worked in the church, you've sung in
the choir for years, and now it's a chance for folks to show that they
appreciate it, and without they're goin' to--Boxes of cake would be
plenty if they wa'n't goin' to serve you any better than they did Ella
Plummet."

Esther Robinson lifted her head. She was quite large, in a soft young
way, and her skin was as pure as a baby's. "But you can't know
beforehand how they're going to treat me!"

"Yes, I can know beforehand, too, and if you're set on next month, it's
none too soon to be seein' about it. I've a good mind to step over to
Mis' Lawrence's and Mis' Stetson's this afternoon."

"Mother! You--wouldn't ask 'em anything?"

Mrs. Robinson hung away her dishtowel; then she f