"I'll coax off six months," Varina declared to her lover, and he went away with that comfort.
She was surprised and amused at Annis' book-learning, and teased her considerably. Did she mean to be a schoolmistress?
Charles returned in capital health and spirits and full of ambitious plans. He had not quite decided what he would be, either a chief justice or a minister abroad. He was not sure now that he wanted to be President.
"For people do say such dreadful things about you. And you don't seem to suit anyone. I don't wonder Mr. Madison looks old and thin and careworn."
"Do you remember," said Varina laughingly, "that I used to oppose a marriage between you and Annis? I wasn't going to let her have everything. I used to consider that you belonged to me."
"You had a great way of appropriating everybody."
"What a ridiculous thing I was! And now I have made up my mind that you are just suited to each other. You can still sit on the window ledge and pore over the same book."
"Annis is well enough, but I am sure she wouldn't find Latin and Greek interesting. And by the time I want to marry, Annis will be—well, quite an old woman."
"If you don't marry until you are forty-nine she will have turned the half-century. That would be rather old. I shall be a grandmother before that time."
"All you girls think about is getting married," returned the youth disdainfully.