"Ah, don't you wish you had?" he returned, laying a hand lightly on her shoulder and giving her a very loverlike look and smile.
"I have serious objections to being questioned too closely," she said laughingly; "and please to remember, sir, that I did not promise never to have a secret from you even if you're my other—and perhaps better half."
"Oh, I always understood it was the woman's privilege to be that," he laughed; "and I certainly expect it of you, my dear."
"Why, how absurd in you!" she exclaimed. "With such a husband as mine it would be utterly impossible for me to be the better half."
"But it is quite the thing for each to think the other is," said
Grandma Elsie, regarding them with an affectionate smile.
"A state of feeling that is certain to make both very happy," remarked
Captain Raymond, who happened to be standing near.
"As you and I know by experience," said Violet with a bright look up into his face.
"Yes," said her cousin Betty, "and anybody who knows you two as well as I do may see the exemplification of that doctrine in your lives. I have always known that you were a decidedly happy couple."
"But needn't plume yourself very much on that discovery, Cousin Betty," laughed Lucilla, "I think everybody makes it who is with them for even a day or two."
"And his children are not much, if at all, behind his wife in love for him, or behind him in love for her," added Grace, smiling up into her father's face.