"Oh, nonsense, Nan," she said smilingly. "India is not such a very great way off; at any rate people can easily get back."
How lightly she said it! It struck me as strange that Olive, who had always seemed to be so fond of mother and home and all of us, should now be so willing to leave us and go to the other side of the world with a man of whom she had known nothing when I left home.
"So, Olive," I said in a tone of mournful conviction, "he is more to you than any of us?"
A grave, sweet look came to Olive's face.
"Why, yes, he certainly is," she made reply, "but you must not suppose, dear old Nan, that I care less for any one because of this new and precious love. It is quite otherwise. My heart goes out to every one of you, as it never did before, just because I am so glad—so glad and so thankful to God for this rich gift of love."
"Yet you are ready to go away with him to the ends of the earth!" I said.
"Yes," she said quietly, and I cannot describe her expression as she said it, "I am ready to go with him wherever he goes. We belong to each other henceforth. Ah, Nan, you cannot understand it now; but you will some day."
But it seemed to me that I was beginning to understand it already.