How uncomfortable a man can feel in the society of a dearly-loved sister and an incomparable brother-in-law I never imagined until that short drive.  Helen was somewhat concerned about the children, but she found time to look at me with so much of sympathy, humor, affection, and condescension that I really felt relieved when we reached the house.  I hastily retired to my own room, but before I had shut the door Helen was with me, and her arms were about my neck; before the dear old girl removed them we had grown far nearer to each other than we had ever been before.

And how gloriously the rest of the day passed off.  We had a delightful little lunch, and Tom brought up a bottle of Roederer, and Helen didn’t remonstrate when he insisted on its being drank from her finest glasses, and there were toasts drank to “Her” and “Her Mother,” and to the Benedict that was to be.  And then Helen proposed “the makers of the match—­Budge and Toddie!” which was honored with bumpers.  The gentlemen toasted did not respond, but they stared so curiously that I sprang from my chair and kissed them soundly, upon which Tom and Helen exchanged significant glances.

Then Helen walked down to Mrs. Clarkson’s boarding-house, all for the purpose of showing a lady there with a skirt to make over just how she had seen a similar garment rearranged exquisitely.  And Alice strolled down to the gate with her to say good-by; and they had so much to talk about that Helen walked Alice nearly to our house, and then insisted on her coming the rest of the way so she might be driven home.  And then Mike was sent back with a note to say to Mrs. Mayton that her daughter had been prevailed upon to stay to evening dinner, but would be sent home under capable escort.  And after dinner was over and the children put to bed, Tom groaned that he must attend a road-board meeting, and Helen begged us to excuse her just a minute while she ran into the doctor’s to ask how poor Mrs. Brown had been doing, and she consumed three hours and twenty-five minutes in asking, bless her sympathetic soul!

The dreaded ending of my vacation did not cause me as many pangs as I had expected.  Helen wanted to know one evening why, if her poor, dear Tom could go back and forth to the city to business every day, her lazy big brother couldn’t go back and forth to Hillcrest daily, if she were to want him as a boarder for the remainder of the season.  Although I had for years inveighed against the folly of cultivated people leaving the city to find residences, Helen’s argument was unanswerable and I submitted.  I did even more; I purchased a lovely bit of ground (though the deed stands in Tom’s name for the present), and Tom has brought up several plans of cottage-houses, and every evening they are spread on the dining-room table, and there gather round them four people, among whom are a white-goods salesman, and a young lady with the brightest of eyes and cheeks full of roses and