"What did you think the first minute you saw her, grandpa?" asked Eddie.
"That she had the sweetest, most beautiful face and perfect form I had ever laid eyes on, and that I would give all I was worth to have her for my own."
"Love at first sight," his daughter remarked, with a smile, "and it was mutual."
"Yes she told me afterward that she had loved me from the first; though the longer I live the more I wonder it should have been so, for I was a wild, wayward youth. But she, poor thing, had none to love or cherish her but her mammy."
"Grandpa, I think you're very nice," put in little Vi, leaning on his knee, and gazing affectionately into his face.
"I'm glad you do," he said, patting her soft round cheek.
"But to go on with my story. I could not keep away from my charmer, and for the next few weeks we saw each other daily.
"I asked her to be my own little wife and she consented. Then early one morning we went to a church and were married; no one being present except the minister, the sexton, and her friend and mine, who were engaged to each other, and her faithful mammy.
"Her guardian was away in a distant city and knew nothing about the matter. He was taken sick there and did not return for three months, and during that time Elsie and I lived together in a house she owned in New Orleans.
"We thought that now that we were safely married, no one could ever separate us, and we were very, very happy.