ose.

"Alice Graham! That child!" exclaimed Selwyn in astonishment.

Leo roared. "Come, come, Sel, perhaps we're not very progressive here
in Croyden, but we don't actually stand still. Girls are apt to
stretch out some between ten and twenty, you know. You old bachelors
think nobody ever grows up. Why, Sel, you're grey around your
temples."

"Too well I know it, but a man's own brother shouldn't be the first to
cast such things up to him. I'll admit, since I come to think of it,
that Alice has probably grown bigger. Is she any better-looking than
she used to be?"

"Alice is a charming girl," said Mrs. Grant impressively. "She is a
beauty and she is also sweet and sensible, which beauties are not
always. We are all very much pleased with Leo's choice. But we have
really no more time to spare just now. The wedding is at seven o'clock
and it is four already."

"Is there anybody you can send to the station for my luggage?" asked
Selwyn. "Luckily I have a new suit, otherwise I shouldn't have the
face to go."

"Well, I must be off," said Mrs. Grant. "Father, take Selwyn away so
that I shan't be tempted to waste time talking to him."

In the library father and son looked at each other affectionately.

"Dad, it's a blessing to see you just the same. I'm a little dizzy
with all these changes. Bertha grown up and Leo within an inch of
being married! To Alice Graham at that, whom I can't think of yet as
anything else than the long-legged, black-eyed imp of mischief she
was when a kiddy. To tell you the truth, Dad, I don't feel in a mood
for going to a wedding at Wish-ton-wish tonight. I'm sure you don't
either. You've always hated fusses. Can't we shirk it?"

They smiled at each other with chummy remembrance of many a family
festival they had "shirked" together in the old days. But Mr. Grant
shook his head. "Not this time, sonny. There are some things a decent
man can't shirk and one of them is his own boy's wedding. It's a
nuisance, but I must go through with it. You'll understand how it is
when you're a family man yourself. By the way, why aren't you a family
man by this time? Why haven't I been put to the bother and
inconvenience of attending your wedding before now, son?"

Selwyn laughed, with a little vibrant note of bitterness in the
laughter, which the father's quick ears detected. "I've been too busy
with law books, Dad, to find me a wife."

Mr. Grant shook his bushy grey head. "That's not the real reason, s