William consulted his watch. “There’s no use standing here talking, Mary Christmas.” There was finality in his tone. “I’ve got two friends waiting for us now, and we’re due at the church at five o’clock. You can tell them that you saw us here if you like. Of course, we’ll telegraph them just as soon as we’re married. And they needn’t any of them worry over Mary. I’ll be good to her all my life--even if I am a Democrat! And I’m not urging her to be married this way. We talked it all over when I was out at college a week ago.” “They needn’t blame William!” cried Mary with the last spurt of a dying spirit. “I planned it _all_--myself!” For a moment Mary Christmas was in a quandary. Here was the time and place for the interference that must come; but how should she interpose it? And then something happened, almost miraculously, which took away all necessity for it. “You know you haven’t any right to interfere with us, Mary Christmas,” cried William. “Not the least in the world!” Then down upon Mary Wescott’s tired head there came tumbling her house of romance, as a child’s colored blocks fall which he has put together with too unsteady hands. Mary Christmas no right to interfere! She, who through all these years had lent color and light and reality to their world? _She_, no right? “Oh, William!” sobbed Mary Wescott. And that was all. * * * * * There were among the guests at Mary Wescott’s wedding, which was held on a Mary Christmas day the year following her graduation from college, those who wondered not a little critically when at the close of the ceremony the bride threw her arms around the neck of Mary Christmas before she had kissed even her own mother and father. There were those, too, who questioned the taste of the Wescotts in inviting Mary Christmas, even in a new suit and hat, to stand within the family circle. But there will always be those, as everyone is aware, and neither they nor anything else could mar the perfection of that Mary Christmas day. It is quite safe to say also that not a few searching glances studied Father Wescott’s face as he shook hands with his new son-in-law; but not one was keen enough to perceive that for which all had been sent--the assurance that, beneath his cordial acceptance of William, he was sadly reviewing a party’s history from the Spoils System to Free Silver! X WAYSIDE SACRAMENTS