"But if you go so far, so very far, my dear boy," said Mme. Zermatt, "we shall not be able to follow you."
"Upon my word," said M. Zermatt emphatically, slapping his son on the shoulder, "I am at my wits' end to know how to curb Jack's impatience! There is absolutely no way of holding him in. Why, I think even Fritz never showed such——"
"Fritz?" Jack retorted. "Well, isn't it my duty to try to take his place in everything? When he comes back he won't be what he was before he went away."
"Why not?" Hannah asked.
"Because he will be married, father of a family, papa and grand-papa, too, if he does not come back soon."
"Do you think so, Jack?" Mrs. Wolston laughed. "Fritz a grandfather after one year's absence?"
"Well, grandfather or not, he will be married."
"And why shouldn't he be what he was, even then?" Hannah insisted.
"Let Jack talk, Hannah," Ernest answered. "His turn will come to make an excellent husband just as Fritz's will."
"Just as yours will, my boy," Jack retorted, with a shrewd look at Ernest and the young girl. "For my own part I should be mightily surprised at such a thing; I think nature specially cut me out to be an uncle, the very best of uncles, an Uncle of New Switzerland! But there is no question to-day, so far as I am aware, of parading in bridal array before the Mayor of Rock Castle; the question is, are we to explore beyond this cliff?"