“I’ll love you enough to make up for forty relations!” he declared. “And, anyway, as soon as we’re married you’ll have mother and Fan and—er—”
He made a wry face, as it occurred to him for the first time that the Reverend Wesley Elliot was about to become Lydia’s brother-in-law.
The girl laughed.
“Haven’t you learned to like him yet?” she inquired teasingly.
“I can stand him for a whole hour at a time now, without experiencing a desire to kick him,” he told her. “But why should we waste time talking about Wesley Elliot?”
Lydia appeared to be considering his question with some seriousness.
“Why, Jim,” she said, looking straight up into his eyes with the innocent candor he had loved in her from the beginning, “Mr. Elliot will expect to marry us.”
“That’s so!” conceded Jim; “Fan will expect it, too.”
He looked at her eagerly:
“Aren’t you in a hurry for that wonderful brother-in-law, Lydia? Don’t you think—?”