"Why, yes, to be sure! if only Will could be satisfied to wait till then."
"It will be hardly longer than the time he was given to understand he must expect to wait," returned her mother pleasantly, "or than he ought to think my Rose worth waiting for. But at all events, daughter, we must consult with your grandpa before deciding. Have you had any talk with him on the subject?"
"No, mamma; I preferred coming to you first, and am almost sure grandpa will think it a matter for you to decide."
"Probably; yet I shall want his opinion; and besides he is your guardian as well as your grandfather."
"Along with you, mamma; and I love him as both, he is so dear and kind."
"He is indeed," assented her mother. "He has told me more than once or twice that my children are scarcely less dear to him than his own."
"Partly because our father was his dear friend as well as his son-in-law," added Violet softly.
"Yes; they were bosom friends before I was born," her mother said with a far-away look in her eyes.
"Then you must have been very much younger than he, Grandma Elsie," remarked Grace, half inquiringly.
"Sixteen years younger. I was in my ninth year when I saw him first, and more than twice that age before I thought of him as anything but a dear, kind friend—my father's friend and mine."