"Waiting for me, love?" he asked, as he stepped to her side and passed an arm round her waist.
"Yes," she said; "the air is so pleasant here, and I thought it would be really delightful for us two to have the deck entirely to ourselves for a while."
"Nothing could be pleasanter to me, dearest," he said, giving her his arm and beginning a leisurely promenade.
"And you have left Max at the Academy again?" she said interrogatively. "How manly he grows, the dear fellow! and so handsome; he's a son to be proud of, Levis."
"So his father thinks," returned the captain, with a low, happy little laugh. "My dear boy is one of God's good gifts to me."
"And how evidently he admires and loves his father—as he well may, I think. He grows more and more like you in looks, too, Levis. I can imagine that at his age you were just what he is now."
"No, my dear; if I am not much mistaken he is both a handsomer and a better lad than his father was at the same age."
"Doubtless not half so conceited and vain as his father was then or is now," she returned, with her low, sweet silvery laugh. "There must have been a vast improvement, however, before I had the happiness of making his acquaintance."
"Max's?" he queried with mock gravity.
"The acquaintance of Max's father, sir," she replied demurely. "I have known the captain now for five years, and can truly say I have never seen him show such vanity and conceit as you are pleased to charge him with, or at least to say were once among his attributes; and I will not have him slandered, even by you."