coming, Archie, dear!" Well, she didn't think he was coming just
then. No more did I.



CORDIAL RELATIONS

The other day I paid a call on Miss Dolly Foster for the purpose
of presenting to her my small offering on the occasion of her
marriage to Lord Mickleham. It was a pretty little bit of
jewelry--a pearl heart, broken (rubies played the part of blood)
and held together by a gold pin, set with diamonds, the whole
surmounted by an earl's coronet. I had taken some trouble about
it, and was grateful when Miss Dolly asked me to explain the
symbolism.

"It is my heart," I observed. "The fracture is your making; the
pin--"

Here Miss Dolly interrupted; to tell the truth I was not sorry,
for I was fairly graveled for the meaning of the pin.

"What nonsense, Mr. Carter!" she said; "but it's awfully pretty.
Thanks so very very much. Aren't relations funny people?"

"If you wish to change the subject, pray do," said I. "I'll
change anything except my affections."

"Look here," she pursued, holding out a bundle of letters. "Here
are the congratulatory epistles from relations. Shall I read you