come my wife."

"Let us attend to business," said Littimer, severely. "Sentiment can
take care of itself."

Their manoeuvre went on so vigorously that Blatchford became alarmed,
and sent an ambassador to arrange a compromise; but by this time
Crombie had determined to oust Blatchford himself and elect an entirely
new set of men, to compose more than half the Board, and so control
everything.

He succeeded.

But Littimer did not forget the charitable enthusiasm which had been
awakened by a circumstance on the surface so trivial as the mistake of
a boot-boy. He did not desist from his interest in aiding disabled or
unfortunate people who could really be aided. Some time after Crombie
had achieved his triumph in the Engraving Company, and had repaid
Littimer's loan, he was admitted to a share in the banking business;
and eventually the head of the house was able to give a great deal of
attention to perfecting his benevolent plans.

When the details of their wedding were under discussion, Crombie said
to Blanche: "Oughtn't we to have an old shoe thrown after the carriage
as we drive away?"

She smiled; looked him full in the eyes with a peculiar tenderness in
which there was a bright, delicious sparkle of humor. "No; old shoes
are much too useful to be wasted that way."

Somehow she had possessed herself of that particular, providential
pair; and, though I don't want anybody to laugh at my two friends, I
must risk saying that I suspect Mrs. Crombie of preserving it somewhere
to this day, in the big new house up-town.

THE DENVER EXPRESS
------------------
BY A. A. HAYES

_Augustus Alien Hayes (born in New England in 1837, died in 1892) was
the author of two works relating to the Far West which have placed on
permanent record an interesting phase, now forever past, of the
development of civilisation in that region. "New Colorado and the Santa
Fe Trail" is a descriptive book yielding the information of fact
concerning the pioneer period of settlement in that region; and "The
Denver Express" is a stirring piece of fiction vividly reproducing the
spirit of those days when the forces of social order introduced by the
railroad were battling with the primitive elements of vice and crime.
The latter story, which is here reproduced, appeared in an English
magazine, "Belgravia," where it was most favorably received by readers
whose appetite for such fiction had already been whetted by the tales
of Bret Harte._