"But could you carry over my kisses, Willis, and distribute them amongst my children every morning and evening, like rations of rice?"
"If the arrangement will really make you uneasy, Mrs. Becker, I give it up," said Willis, polishing with his arm the surface of his oil-skin sou'-wester.
"Not at all, Willis. It is for me to give up my objections. Besides, I observe Miss Sophia staring at me with her great eyes; she will never forgive me for tormenting her sweetheart."
"Ah! since I have been staring at you, I have only now to eat you up like the wolf in Little Red Ridinghood," and in a moment her slender arms were clasped round Mrs. Becker's neck.
"Good," said Becker, "there is another point settled—temporarily."
"In Europe," observed Wolston, "there is nothing so durable as the temporary."
"In Europe, yes, but not here. To-morrow morning we shall select a tree near Falcon's Nest, and in eight days you shall be permanently housed in an aerial tenement close to ours, so that we may chat to each other from our respective balconies."
"That will be a castle in the air a little more real than those I have built in Spain."
"Then you have been in Spain, papa?"
"Every one has been less or more in the Spain I refer to. Sophy—it is the land of dreams."