"Paul and Jenny?" she murmured, "I don't know, John, I have been wondering myself."

"Would you—would you like it if they did?" he asked.

"I don't know. I like Jenny very much; she is too good for Paul, really."

He nodded, "Yes, I see what you mean, but on the other hand she draws out the very best that there is in the boy."

"Paul is not a boy, he's thirty."

"Thirty is boyhood to fifty-three," he answered smiling. "I like the little lady with her edible looking curls, and her music is real music, based on the best things in her; music is no good at all when it is built only on the emotions. Of course, if they do marry, the energetic journalist would be almost a member of the family—he and his wife."

Grisel laughed and gave a comic shiver. "Oh dear, oh dear, then I should have to live cheek and jowl with perfection; it would be dreadful."

"By that time, dear," he said gravely, "you and I will not be living exactly cheek and jowl with anyone at 'Happy House.'"

"No, no, of course not. I was only thinking"—she broke off a little confused, and he laughed.

"Oh, John," she said, "you are such a dear and I am so fond of you! You always make everything so much nicer—and so much easier to bear."