"Well, I must kiss you, my dear," his aunt said; "but I almost feel as if I were taking a liberty."
"Nonsense, aunt! I don't think I have changed much since I went away; but of course in six years I have grown a bit bigger. And how are you, girls? How are you both?"
They went into the house.
"Well, Arthur," his uncle said, looking at him closely, "it may have been only six years since you left us, but by your appearance I should have thought that it was ten."
"I suppose I do look older than I am, uncle. Everyone takes me for three or four years older, but I can tell you it has been a most fortunate thing for me. I should never have been made a captain if they had had an idea that I was only eighteen years old."
"Well, Arthur, I suppose you have quite given up your tendency to get into scrapes," his aunt said.
"I don't think I have, aunt," Arthur laughed. "I have been in a good many of what you might call scrapes since I went away, but, as you see, I have come all right through them. The only casualty that I have had is, that I got a couple of ribs broken in a fight with some brigands three months ago. And now I am going to astonish you. I am going to get married."
There was a general exclamation of astonishment. "You are not serious, Arthur?"
"Never was more serious in my life."
"And is it to a Spanish lady?"