"Perhaps every one does not have the opportunity, my dear," answered the old lady, with a quiet smile.
"Oh, but you must have had plenty of them. Isn't that so? and why did you never accept?"
Elsie dropped the string she had been waving before the eyes of the cat, and looked up with eager interest.
"Yes, I had offers, and one of them I accepted," replied Aunt Wealthy, with a slight sigh, while a shade of sadness stole over her usually happy face, "but my friends interfered and the match was broken off. Don't follow my example, children, but marry if the right one comes along."
"Surely you don't mean if our parents refuse their consent, auntie?"
Elsie's tone spoke both surprise and disapproval.
"No, no, child! It is to those who keep the fifth commandment God promises long life and prosperity."
"And love makes it so easy and pleasant to keep it," murmured Elsie, softly, and with a sweet, glad smile on her lips and in her eyes, thinking of her absent father, and almost unconsciously thinking aloud.
"Ah, child, it can sometimes make it very hard," said Miss Stanhope, with another little sigh, and shaking her head rather sadly.
"Elsie, you must have had lots of lovers before this, I am sure!" exclaimed Lottie, stopping her machine, and facing suddenly round upon her friend. "No girl as rich and beautiful as you are could have lived eighteen years without such an experience."
Elsie only smiled and blushed.