"Well, my child, people may be great friends without being very near of an age," laughed her father. "For instance, are not you and I great friends?"
"Oh, we are lovers," she answered with a bright smile up into his eyes. "But then we are not of the same sex."
"And that, you think, makes a difference, eh?" he laughed. "But Max and Ned seem to love me nearly as well as my daughters do."
"Every bit as much, papa!" exclaimed Ned earnestly. "I do, I'm sure."
"That is pleasant to hear, my boy," his father said, smiling fondly upon the little fellow. "And I presume brother Max would say the same if he were here. Ah, we have reached home"; for at that moment the carriage turned in at the great gates.
"Our own sweet, lovely home!" said Grace, looking out upon the beautiful grounds with shining eyes. "I am always glad to get back to it, no matter where I have been."
"I too," said Lucilla; "unless my father is somewhere else," she added, giving him a most loving look.
"Ah, I wasn't thinking of being in it without papa," said Grace. "I'd rather live in a hovel with him than in a palace without him."
"I don't doubt it, my darling," he returned. "I am entirely sure of the love of both of you, and of all my children."
"And of your wife, I hope," added Violet in a sprightly tone.