"Well, Barbara, darling, I don't think it's as you say; but supposing it were! We ought not to set ourselves against it, ought we?"
"What, our own Daddy! I think it would be horrible."
"Why, darling?"
She did not say why, but repeated that it would be horrible.
Caroline was at a loss. "I don't know why you don't like Ella," she said slowly. "You are good at judging of people, I know—better than I am—but I think that I should have found it out by this time if there had been anything that one ought not to like in her. I can't see it if there is. I think I love her next best after the family. I do love her."
"Would you love her if you thought she wanted to marry Dad?"
"Yes, I think perhaps I should love her all the more, though just at first perhaps I shouldn't like it—I mean I shouldn't like anybody to marry him. It's difficult to say, before anything has happened; and I believe you are making a mistake too. But supposing she did, it could only be because she really loved him. She has had plenty of offers of marriage."
"So she says."
"Oh, Barbara, darling! That's silly. She is beautiful, and clever, and nice too. Even if you don't agree entirely with the rest of us in liking her, we all do like her. And I don't think even you have not liked her really, though you think now you haven't."