The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1900-04-21

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asked. ''You know you promised"
"Yes," replied, II promised, ani
I'll keep my promise. I'll be youl
best man. Not that I wouldn't like
to got ont Of it." I went on; ''but yor
insist, and ] suppose that"
''Oh, come now, said Tom, ''don't
60 in for cynicism; that's cheap. Oi
course, I'm willing to admit tha!
from your point of view, perhaps, Dor.
othy Melton may havo treated you
badly enough, but wouldn't curse
the whole sex and rail at matrimony
and all that You'll get over It in
timo, you know"
Il Tom is IN old friend, and allows
himself liberties. l kept my head, and
replied calmly:
II am not cynical, and Tn not
railing at matrimony. Moreover.
that little affair with the young woman
you mention, which I havc quite for-
gotten"
om smiled in peculiarly trying
m1Aner.
(which have entirely forgotten -
repeated.
."And will forget anew every day
you livc," said Tom.
"Has had nothing whatever to do
with my Termination to devote myself
entirely 10 my profession. I have al
ready frittered away entirely too much
Of my life on what we are pleased to
call society But of course I'll keep
my promise to you.
"Now look here, old man," Tom
began; but he saw, I suppose, some
thing in my face which warned him
that / was not to be moved. At any
rate he laughod and shrugged his
shoul ers, and then said:
SWELL, I'll count on you for best
man. June seventh is tho day, and I
hope you won't find it such al awful
bore as you seem to expect
The marriage was to come off at
Riverton, and congratulated myself
that the guests, with few exceptions,
would be Riverton folk whom did
not know. could do my duty by
Tom, take last farewell of butterfly
society, and then settle down for good
npon tho career which fondly hoped
would end upon the supreme bench.
I would work, end work hard. Dorothy
Melton, with whom I quarreled six
months ago, should never think that
she had brokon my heart, or shattered
my life. or anything of that sort, for
she hadn't Sho simply had revealed
g Mes&he fickleness of her sex and
Brought mo to the realization that a
s6seef, after all, is the only thing that
MNr6ally satisfy man worth any
thing.
As the time Of Toms wedding ap-
preached I wrote him that l should
rum down to Riverton "a hours in ad-
vance in order to attend to all the
thousand and one duties which de-
volve upon the bestsnan; but at the
Iast moment my one really good client,
man rich and cranky, succeeded in
getting SO hopelessly involved in an
injunction suit that nothing but i'm
mediate and earnest personal attention
could keep him from going to Jail for
contempt of cotrt. Isaved him from
that ignominy, but only after spending
ehs cntiro morning OF the wedding
DAY in court, and barely caught the
last train by which I could reach Riv-
srton in time for the ceremony. Tom
and his friends would have to look
afser the details Of tho wedding which
! was compelled to neglect.
] had forgotten that Uncle William
Csarkson lived at Rivcrton, or might
nsvs been prepared for him; but be-
lore the train Ind fairly stopped at
she station Uncle William was at my
elde, grasping my hand and reaching
!cr my bag. ''Here you are at last"
e was saying. 1--WE been at every
hain that came in today. You've got
70 Sc up to the house with me and get
: intlc snack OF something to eat be-
ssre the Wedding
bat Tom" j interposed.
Uh, that's all right, said Uncle
William. ''I've arranged it all with
Jour friend Tom, and I'll have you at
vnrist church III plenty Of time for
sae wedding. So come along; your
sants waiting for YOU
Really, what could do? r looked
aDout hclplcssly, hoping that Tom or
ssosne Of his friends would appear and
claim to me, but Uncle William
80 evidently Ilnrressed upon them
that hc was going TO .ays his own
.xal with me, aud they came =.
- nizvuIu have been yer
~ % dino with Uncle William and
Asa' Margaret, but when fellow is
csng to be bost man at his best
ds Wedding, anl has only two
fs and half before the ceremony
= not exactly in tho mood for visit.
sven his nearest and dearest rela-
~ tried to say something Of the
..r g Uncle William. bnt he reterted:
=. lshaw, now! There amt