IILE LADIES' floral GABIHET. 
HI 
“I am glad to be able to introduce you at once, Mr 
Calthorpe, to my futui-e husband,” she said, laughine' 
as she took the hand of Maurice. • 
“What!—why, when was this arranged?” cried Mr 
Caltlioi'pe, astounded. 
“ Only a few days ago,” responded his son, “and we 
have been obliged to allow her to be the first to give you 
the glad news. It was only delayed because she could 
not until last night muster courage enough to fix the 
time for telling you.” , 
Mr. Calthorpe looked in amazement from one to the 
other. 
“ But what about the engagement to Powell ?” 
“That was my mistake and Powell’s, poor fellow,” 
said the Colonel. “He always spoke to me so confl- 
dently that I, like him, fancied his suit was progressing 
favorably when it was making no progress at all.” 
“My dear child,” said Mr. Calthorpe, embracing his 
future daughter-in-law, “I congratulated you before, 
but I congratulate you again with all my heart. But it 
was not fair of you—you sly rogues!—to play such a 
huge practical joke upon me. And you, Cuthbert, you 
are as bad as the others, for I ^vould have detected the 
hoax at once but for you.” 
“ I really bad no intention of misleading you.” 
“Of coiu-se not, of course not. I forgive you, and you 
my dear cliild; but I wiU not forgive Maurice. The 
fellow must have been laughing at me all the time I 
was talking so seriously to him this morning.” 
“You have always something to complain about, 
sir,” said the unrepentant son. 
‘ ‘ Of course I have—on principle. Wliat would life be 
without a grievance ?" 
He had a substantial ground for complaint when he 
discovered what he called the maddest of mad-quixotic 
conditions which Maurice insisted upon. It was this: 
that Mable should be content with the home he was able 
to provide for her, and to live upon what income he 
could earn, until such time as he should have paid off 
the mortgages on the Calthorpe estate. Prom this no 
persuasion of his father or the colonel could move him, 
and. they were obliged to yield the point when they 
found that Mabel was as firmly resolved upon it as him¬ 
self. Mr. Calthorpe, however, easily resigned himself to 
the enjoyment of liis old home, to the privilege of re- 
peatemy reminding Maurice of his folly, while he gen¬ 
erously left the management of the mortgages entirely 
to his care. 
About a week after they were united Mable rested her 
hand on Maurice’s arm as he was reading a letter. 
“ What about Teddy?” she enquired anxiously. 
“ Arkwood can do nothing for him except obtain a 
promise that he will let his mother know if he sliould 
get into any difliculty. Ho sailed again for New York 
yesterday.” 
“ Poor Teddy ! we owe some of our trouble to him, 
Maurice, and we owe to his misfortune om' happiness.” 
THE END. 
THE HOUSE, 
The in-actice of embellishing fireplaces in the princi¬ 
pal apartments is steadily increasing, and much might 
be said in its favor, for, when the ifiants are appropriate 
and tastefully arranged, they present a far more attrac¬ 
tive ap)pearance than any of the so-called grate orna¬ 
ments. The most useful plants are such as afford strik¬ 
ing forms and pleasing tones of green or variegated 
foliage. The palms, di-aceenas, grasses, and miscella¬ 
neous “ foliage ” plants of neat and, generally speaking, 
light habit should predominate—lumpy plants present- 
mg lai'ge surfaces are not suitable—and there must be a 
fail' pi'oportion of color to light up the group. For 
this piu’pose the flowers should be choice as well as 
showy. 
A general objection may be urged against all kinds of 
bedding plants as unsuitable : the same principal should 
be followed in selecting the flowers as the leaves, form 
and a certain airiness of style being of great importance. 
Hence a neat tuft of white Marguerites peeping out 
from amongst grassy leafage will be far preferable to a 
Flowers foe iNVALms.— A lady writing about 
the pleasure that flowers give to invalids, among the 
poor, tells the following anecdote to illusti'ate her 
words: 
‘ ‘ Several years ago, when I was a ydung housekeeper, 
I was startled one Sunday morning by the request, from 
a working blacksmith, for some grapes for his sick wife. 
We had no greenhouse or vinery. Our Uttle bit of garden 
was most unassuming, and I could not think what made 
the man come to me. 
“However, I told liim that I believed a friend of or^ 
had some early grapes, and if I could get some, his wife 
should have them in the afternoon. My husband walke 
out with me to om" friend’s house. Some grapes were 
most willingly given for the invahd, and some flowers 
for ourselves. 
. “ I gathered two or three pretty and sweet flowers^ 
scarlet Geranium. Many greenliouse plants answer ad¬ 
mirably for this kind of decoration, which never need 
be costly, but must always be tasteful and combine rich¬ 
ness and delicacy without any strong display of color. 
Sometimes a mere strip of looking-glass placed at the 
back of the grate and leaning against the register will, 
when the plants are nicely grouped before it, make a 
wonderful difference. A more simple procedure that 
may or may not answer, as the case may be, consists in 
covering the back of the grate with cheap thin paper of 
a very dark gi'een color, and putting it on as much 
cruniijled as possible, so as to be practically invisible, 
to afford a kind of distance rather than a background, 
its real imrpose being to conceal ugly ironwork and 
l>revent the intrusion into the midst of the plants of any 
such featm'es. The plants must all be clean and dry 
when placed in position, but the soil in the pots should 
be moist enough to carry them through for a few days, 
ivhen a change must be made for the sake of the plants. 
— Selected. 
I remember that a carnation and two sweet-iwas formed 
part—tied them together, and we took them with the 
fruit to the sick woman. 
“We were taken up to her bedroom. There she lay, 
pale and emaciated, with an ominous flush on her cheeks. 
We handed her the longed-for grapes. She was ‘ much 
obliged.’ 
“ But when I held out to her the few flowers I had 
brought, she snatched them so eagerly that I was 
startled and awed to see the delight they gave to one 
who was evidently so near the confines of the Un¬ 
known. 
“ I called again in a day or two, and saw the flowers 
carefully preserved, and looking bright in a doctor’s 
medicme bottle close by her bedside. That scene taught 
me a lesson I have never forgotten, and I hope it was 
not without its use also.”— Ex. 
