"Object, my darling, light of my eyes and joy of my heart!" he said in a loving, mirthful tone, bending down to kiss the sweet lips. "Yours is the sweetest companionship I know of. I should be glad to think mine was as delightful to you."
"As I don't know how to measure either one, I can only say that it is the most delightful of all in the world to me," she returned with a happy laugh. Then in a somewhat graver tone, "Oh, my dear husband, you don't know how dearly I and all your children love you! Neither Elsie nor Ned is ever willing to go to bed without your fatherly good-night caresses, and they always bewail the necessity for doing that when you are away from home."
"Probably not regretting it more than their father does," he said. "Yes, the love of my children is a highly esteemed blessing to me, and, unfortunately, I cannot help feeling it something of a grief and disappointment when I learn that their tenderest affection has been transferred to another."
"Ah, you are thinking of Grace and Harold. But be comforted, my dear; I am certain that Grace does not love her father less because Harold has won a place in her heart. I do not love my dear mother any the less for loving you, my dear husband, or you any the less for loving her."
"I am glad to hear it, my darling," he said, tenderly pressing the hand she had laid in his.
"And surely we cannot blame my brother and your daughter for loving each other when they are both so worthy of affection that no one who knows them can help giving it to them."
"You are a special pleader, my dear," he said with a smile; "and they hardly need one with me, for I am fond of them both—particularly of my frail young daughter."
"Ah, and does not that cause you to rejoice that she loves, and is beloved by, a good and successful physician?"
"That is a cause for thankfulness, my dear," he returned pleasantly. "But shall we not go in now and retire to rest? It is growing late."
"Yes, if you have finished your evening promenade; I don't want to rob you of that."