E-text prepared by Larry B. Harrison, Ernest Schaal,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
()
from page images generously made available by
Internet Archive
(https://archive.org)
| Note: | Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/bestman00macg |
Transcriber's Note:
In addition to the title story ("The Best Man") the originalbook contained three other stories by the same author, andthey are included in this e-book. They are
"Two Candidates," first published in theEverybody's Magazine, May, 1905.
"The Advent of Mr. 'Shifty' Sullivan," firstpublished in the Ainslee Magazine,November, 1903.
"The Girl and the Poet," first published in theLadies Home Journal, December, 1905.
![The BEST MAN by HAROLD MACGRATH Author of The Man on the Box, Hearts and Masks, Half a Rogue, Etc. With Illustrations by Will Grefé. Decorations by Franklin Booth. [Illustration] NEW YORK A. L. BURT COMPANY PUBLISHERS](https://oldbook.b-cdn.net/kitaplar/5/pg45528-h/images/title.png "The BEST MAN by HAROLD MACGRATH Author of The Man on the Box, Hearts and Masks, Half a Rogue, Etc. With Illustrations by Will Grefé. Decorations by Franklin Booth. [Illustration] NEW YORK A. L. BURT COMPANY PUBLISHERS")
Copyright 1907
The Bobbs-Merrill Company
—
October
To the Ramsdells
In Memory of
Many Pleasant Florentine Days
Thanks are due Ainslee's Magazine forpermission to republish The Advent of Mr."Shifty" Sullivan.
The BEST MAN
THE BEST MAN
I
CARRINGTON folded the documentand thoughtfully balancedit on his palm. What an ironicalold world it was! There was a perpendicularwrinkle about his nose, and hislips had thinned into a mere line whichdrooped at the corners. The drone of atype-writer in the adjoining room soundedabove the rattle-tattle of the streetbelow. Through the opened windowscame a vague breath of summer redolentof flowers and grasses; for it was buteleven o'clock of the morning, and thesmell of sun-baked brick and asphalt hadnot yet risen through the air. Far beyond[pg 12]the