"Why, you've been telling us about yourself! It's a true story!"
"And you came home yesterday to the Towers."
"And did you come and see Aunt Alice last night?"
"And are you going to take her away from us? We really can't spare her."
"I am going to carry her off to my house, of course. But a pirate sticks at nothing. I shall do more than that. I shall carry dear old Granny off—very gently so as not to hurt her; and then I shall come back for all of you—I shall carry you all off to my gloomy castle, and there you will have to stay. What do you think of that?"
He leant back in his chair and looked at them with a cheerful smile.
It was some time before they could grasp this wonderful news, and when they did, they hardly knew what to say.
"Do you mean," Charity said, earnestly, "that you're going to marry Aunt Alice and take us all to live at the Towers? Why, it will be like a fairy tale. It can't be true!"
"Do you think there will be room enough for you?" asked the Pirate, anxiously.
And then the little girls began to laugh, as they thought of the big, rambling passages, and the large, lofty rooms that were mostly empty.