hundred-yard dash or a mile run to the most distant department, while
her man companion takes his coat off and worms his way twenty feet to
the necktie counter, which is always found opposite the main entrance.
Ten feet farther in, it would fail. Gabrielle shopped with system, to
save time, and then used the time she saved to shop some more.

Not long after three o'clock on that memorable Wednesday, Mrs. Gibson,
Nellie and Gabrielle gathered around the enthroned Jim in his castle
retreat to talk it all over again for the thousandth time.

"The wedding ring fitted the first time we tried it, and so do all my
clothes, ties, gloves and hats," said Jim, with a smile intended to
aggravate argument. "It is no trouble at all for me to get married."

"You're not original, though," laughed Nellie. "Originality, you know,
takes time, thought and effort. Gabrielle will outshine you."

"Of course, she will," said Jim--"if there is anything left of the poor
girl to wear these things."

"Oh, don't fear that, Jim," Gabrielle advised. "This is great fun."

"The stores always seem to be filled with women," remarked Jim. "Are
they all about to get married, I wonder?"

"Those who go the earliest and stay the longest are women who are
getting ready for the fourth trip," said Mr. Gibson, the jolly father,
whose grim face belied his heart. He had entered in time to catch Jim's
query. "It's a case of accelerated motion," he added.

The girls laughed and chided him for his wantonly cruel words. They
chatted along merrily for an hour, first about this trifle and then
that, completely under the influence of the glorious event, without one
thought being given to the cloud, as big as a postman's hand, among
Gabrielle's packages, for they did not see it there.

The happy prospective bridegroom, who had escaped the dire fate the
letters threatened to throw across his path by dodging beneath the
quilts at the hospital, was now full of the heroism that thrives in
peace. The calamity which seemed prepared to fall upon him in the hour
of his greatest happiness, Fate had tossed aside, and his star
combination proved to be intact and in good working order. Trouble had
gathered near in murky concentration for a few minutes that anxious
day, but when Hygeia passed out of the door of his room to answer my
bell, the knight stood forth with visor up, resumed his normal color,
and gradually his power of speech. Those old breadcrumbs cast upon the
water