"You will do so at the peril of all your future happiness and prosperity."
Then they were silent until they reached a great white house standing in green depths of sweet foliage. Robert wondered and admired. Its vast hall, and the spacious room, so splendidly furnished, into which his brother led him, filled him with astonishment. Two pretty girls were sitting at a table drawing embroidery patterns, and they nearly threw the table over in their delight when their father entered.
"Here is your Uncle Robert Campbell!" he cried joyously. "Give him some of your noisy welcome, and then run away, you little cherubs, or you will miss your beauty sleep."
They were soon alone, and David turned out some of the lights and placed a box of cigars on the table, and the two men smoked in silence for a little while. Then Robert said: "You are very rich, I suppose, David."
"Yes, I am tolerably well off."
"And very happy?"
"As happy as a man can be, who has lost the dearest and sweetest of wives."
"But you will marry again?"
"Not until my daughters are married! I will never give them a stepmother; she might make me a stepfather. But when they are settled, I may marry again."
"Do you know any one likely to take the place of your dead wife?"