The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-05-19
so NEARLY WON.
Whitehall ReyleM :.


 The carriage was just turning the cor ner oi the drive where the tall evergreens grow thiekes,. the final shower of rice and he las, old satin slipper were falliny tar behind il. when James Grafton real ized for the first time that Le,tie was gone indeed, and had left him there alone and unprotected For him the bright June day seemed suddenly overloaded, and his own litile domestic world strangely empty m spite oi the merry chattering groups of bridai guests on his sunny lawn. In an other instant ihe carriage had disap- peared he bridesmaids and their attend ant swains turned laughingly away. and saon;e-ed oti mostly m couples for one ~eddins is very provocative ot another. ie" things being more infectious than loVe-m akins.
 lnes Grafton went toward his hou se with d very grave face fhe had been stand Ing or the path ,ha; ne mish; watch the carriage to Inc very lastl, and on the doors.e9 he met kis two sisters-.n-Iaw. Ass. Charles and Mrs Harry, both wii- o"s. and asrayei ia differing shades of lroa-sTay silk. l; was awful 10 have ,o lace them alone wlthou, that good. kind. biave le;tie who mad hitherto looked so well ai,er him and his interests. who had always stood beta cen him and the wid- o~s They seemed 10 have come fear fully near 10 him all at once. Were they going to crush him completely: Would they eat him up and pick his bones !: What would they do to him?
 imes Grafton was bachelor of forty or thereabou, Lettie. his only sister. whom he had a couple of hours ago most unse.nshly given away to Colonel Rath- bone al the little white church at the foot of the hill. although many years younger than himself, had always tough, his domestic battles for him and had been quite equ Il to the task of defending him from any number ot aggressive relatives. And James Grafton needed a protector badly, for he was the only man of his family who had ever made any money :; while his brothers, after trying hard to ruin him as we'll as themselves, had died penniless, leaving him thirteen nephews and nieces to care for as we'll as two wid- ows, whose only jointures were a couple of very different but, to James Grafton, equally objectionable tempers. A heavy burden truly; but he and Lettie had taken 1t up bravely and cheerfully, and had done very much more than their duty.
 But nov James Grafton had given Lettie away she was gone, and the wid- ows were standing on the doorstep saying all sorts of pretty things about the pretty wedding and charming bride. There was great blank where Lettie had been. Oh, then, surely the widows and the thir- teen children could fill it. Everything his friends said brought this thought to James Grafton's mind :; but that only made the blank look blanker. Mrs. Charles and Mrs. Harry did not love each other. How could they. being the mothers of two rival clans of children ? That woman was the term by which the one indicated the other in a general way but to-day, as each tried to excel the other in doing the honors of James Grafton's very picturesque little house, no one, except the keenest observer, could have told that open var ragged perma- nentiy between the two smiling ladies who received % graciously the parting congratulations of the wedding guests. James Grafton, however, knew the state of affairs only too well, and as he watched the groups on the lawn thinning, and car- riage after carriage driving off. his heart sank down and down, and the blackness of darkness settled upon him.
 At length all had departed except the sisters-in-law and their elder children. Mrs. Charles at once began to explore the house, which during Lestie's reign