e,
Grace!"

"I knew, if we all prayed about it, your father'd let you!" exulted
Teresa, the following afternoon, when Marg'ret Hammond was about to run
down the wide steps of the Costello house, in the gathering dusk. The
Mayor came into the entrance hall, his coat pocket bulging with papers,
and his silk hat on the back of his head, to find his wife and
daughters bidding the guest good-by. He was enthusiastically imformed
of the happy change of event.

"Father," said Teresa, before fairly freed from his arms and his kiss,
"Marg'ret's father said she could have her white dress, and Marg'ret
came home with us after rehearsal, and we've been having such fun!"

"And Marg'ret's father sent you a nice message, Frank," said his wife,
significantly.

"Well, that's fine. Your father and I had a good talk to-day,
Marg'ret," said the Mayor, cordially. "I had to be down by the bridge,
and I hunted him up. He'll tell you about it. He's going to lend me a
hand at the shop, the way I won't be so busy. 'Tis an awful thing when
a man loses his wife," he added soberly a moment later, as they watched
the little figure run down the darkening street.

"But now we're all good friends again, aren't we, mother?" said
Alanna's buoyant little voice. Her mother tipped her face up and kissed
her.

"You're a good friend,--that I know, Alanna!" said she.

"S IS FOR SHIFTLESS SUSANNA"

"You look glorious. What's the special programme you've laid out for
this morning, Sue?" said Susanna's husband, coming upon her in her rose
garden early on a certain perfect October morning.

"I FEEL glorious too" young Mrs. Fairfax said, returning his kiss and
dropping basket and scissors to bestow all her attention upon his
buttonhole rose. "There is no special occasion for all this
extravagance," she added, giving a complacent downward glance at the
filmy embroideries of her gown, and her small whiteshod feet. "In fact,
to-day breaks before me a long and delicious blank. I don't know when I
have had such a Saturday. I shall write letters this morning--or
perhaps wash my hair--I don't know. And then I'll take Mrs. Elliot for
a drive this afternoon, or take some fruit to the Burkes, maybe, and
stop for tea at the club. And if you decide to dine in town, I'll have
Emma set my dinner out on the porch and commence my new Locke. And if
you can beat that programme for sheer idle bliss," said Susanna, "let
me hear you do it!"

She finished fastening