Max and his wife and sister found their callers seated upon the veranda at Sunnyside, enjoying a view of the beautiful grounds, and chatting cosily together while awaiting their coming.
Cordial greetings were exchanged, the baby was noticed and admired, and some one asked if she could still talk as well as she did yesterday.
“Can’t you, my pet?” asked her father, leaning over her, and an answer seemed to come from her lips:
“I’ll try, papa, if you will help me.”
“I really think she can talk now quite as well as she did yesterday,” Max said with becoming gravity.
“And I presume she will be able to whenever her father is with her,” laughed Violet.
“And when he is gone, perhaps she may succeed when Cousin Ronald is by,” said the captain. “I shall certainly not be surprised if she does.”
“It probably will not be so very long before she can use her own tongue,” said Mr. Lilburn.
“And we will hope she will use it aright as she grows up to girlhood, and then to womanhood,” remarked her grandfather, gazing affectionately upon the little one now nestling in her mother’s arms.