"Harold gave me a piece of news last night that has made me very happy. I hope one of these days to number you among my dear daughters, and shall feel most happy in doing so."
"Oh, Grandma Elsie, it is so kind in you to say that!" returned Grace tremulously, but blushing with pleasure as she spoke; "it will be very sweet to have you for my mother, for I have loved you dearly ever since I first saw you."
At that moment Walter came and took a seat on the other side of her.
"Oh, Gracie," he said in an undertone, "I am so glad of Harold's news—that I am to have you for a sister at some future day. I'll try to be a good brother to you."
"And I certainly intend to do my best to be a good sister to you, Walter," she answered in the same low tone, and with a vivid blush and one of her sweetest smiles.
"Thanks," he said. "I wish the wedding was to take place directly; some time this fall, at least. Couldn't we coax your father to allow it?"
She laughed and shook her head. "Papa would never allow it, and I—don't believe I could consent myself. Really, the very thought of doing anything so important so suddenly more than half frightens me."
"Harold is a mild, good-natured kind of fellow; you needn't be afraid of him," laughed Walter.
"No, not of him exactly," returned Grace, laughing a little also and blushing quite a good deal, "but of—of the sudden change in my way of life—leaving my father and all the rest of my family."
But there the talk between them ended for the time, for Harold's near relatives came up, one after another, to tell Grace how welcome a new member of their near connection she would be. Chester Dinsmore was the only one who expressed any regret, and that not to Grace, but to Lucilla.