thed. Louise was the
recipient of innumerable merry "showers" from her girl associates, and
her cousins, Patsy and Beth, followed in line with "glass showers" and
"china showers" until the prospective bride was stocked with enough
wares to establish a "house-furnishing emporium," as Uncle John proudly
declared.
Mr. Merrick, by this time quite reconciled and palpably pleased at the
approaching marriage of his eldest niece, was not to be outdone in
"social stunts" that might add to her happiness. He gave theatre parties
and banquets without number, and gave them with the marked success that
invariably attended his efforts.
The evening before the wedding Uncle John and the Major claimed Arthur
for their own, and after an hour's conference between the three that
left the young fellow more happy and grateful than ever before, he was
entertained at his last "bachelor dinner," where he made a remarkable
speech and was lustily cheered.
Of course Beth and Patsy were the bridesmaids, and their cousin Kenneth
Forbes came all the way from Elmhurst to be Arthur's best man. No one
ever knew what it cost Uncle John for the wonderful decorations at the
church and home, for the music, the banquet and all the other details
which he himself eagerly arranged on a magnificent scale and claimed was
a part of his "wedding present."
When it was all over, and the young people had driven away to begin the
journey of life together, the little man put a loving arm around Beth
and Patsy and said, between smiles and tears:
"Well, my dears, I've lost one niece, and that's a fact; but I've still
two left. How long will they remain with me, I wonder?"
"Dear me, Uncle John," said practical Patsy; "your necktie's untied and
dangling; like a shoestring! I hope it wasn't that way at the wedding."
"It was, though," declared the Major, chuckling. "If all three of ye get
married, my dears, poor Uncle John will come to look like a scarecrow
--and all that in the face of swell society!"
"Aren't we about through with swell society now?" asked Mr. Merrick,
anxiously. "Aren't we about done with it? It caused all our troubles,
you know."
"Society," announced Beth, complacently, "is an excellent thing in the
abstract. It has its black sheep, of course; but I think no more than
any other established class of humanity."
"Dear me!" cried Uncle John; "you once denounced society."
"That," said she, "was before I knew anything at all about it."
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