"Well, dear child, you needn't mind. It won't make me a day older," laughed Violet.
"Nor me, although it would seem to make me a great-grandmother," added Grandma Elsie pleasantly.
"While no one would suspect you from your looks of being even a grandmother," remarked the captain gallantly.
"No," said Dr. Percival; "I have seen many much younger women who looked a great deal older."
"Oh, Dick, Dick, Cousin Dick, don't turn flatterer," she laughed, though looking not at all displeased. "Though I am not very sorry to hear such flattering remarks, as they are evidently pleasing to my children."
"Indeed they are," said Violet; "all the more so because we see that they are perfectly truthful."
"Well, it is high time that we busy doctors and proposed letter writers were going home," said Dr. Percival, rising to take leave.
"Yes," said Maud, following his example, "especially as Elsie P. and Elsie J. must be wanting their mothers by this time."
"So we are off for Torriswood," said Sidney. "Good-by, dear friends and relatives, till next time. We hope to have this call returned this evening or to-morrow morning," and with that the four took their departure.