"But Delight is twenty, Zenas Henry," persisted Celestina.
"What of it?"
"Well, you mustn't forget it, that's all," continued the woman softly. "Many a girl her age is married an'——"
"Married!" burst out the man with indignation. "What under heaven are you talkin' about, Celestina? Delight marry? Not she! She's too young. Besides, she's well enough content with Abbie an' the three captains an' me. Marry? Delight marry! Ridiculous!"
"But you don't mean to say you expect a creature as pretty as she is not to marry," said Celestina aghast.
"Oh, why, yes," ruminated Zenas Henry. "Of course she's goin' to get married sometime by an' by—mebbe in ten years or so. But not now."
"Ten years or so! My goodness! Why, she'll be thirty or thirty-five, an' an old maid by that time."
"No, she won't. I was forty-five before I married, an' it didn't do me no hurt or spoil my chances."
"You might have been livin' with Abbie all them years, though."
"I know it."