"Well, Kate! You can prepare to receive your husband—to be—at almost any minute! This letter, mailed only two days prior to his departure from New York, informs me that he is coming to claim you."
"Why, papa! What do you mean?"
"Why, George! What do you mean?"
The astonishment expressed in the tones, and depicted in the features, of his "women folks," as he called them, was too much for Mr. Stafford. He could no longer retain his gravity, and burst into a hearty laugh.
Mrs. Stafford looked perplexed, Kate pouted, and as this only served to increase Mr. Stafford's merriment, it was with difficulty he replied:
"I mean exactly what I said: Kate's future husband may arrive at any time to-day or to-morrow!"
Mrs. Stafford looked still more perplexed and rather serious, while Kate looked exceedingly curious.
"Come, George!" said Mrs. Stafford. "Don't tease poor Kate! Tell us what this means—I'm sure I cannot understand you!"
"Well, my dear, I will relieve the terrible suspense. You, of course, remember my old partner Hall. Poor Dick is dead and gone, but a better friend or truer man never lived! But, no matter. When we decided to give up business, and had wound up all our affairs, we—that is, you and I and a little girl we called Kate—spent the night before we left New York for England at Dick's house. Well, Hall had a little boy, and he and this little girl of ours were great friends; and, as they played about the floor, Dick made some remark about it being a pity to part them; that it was probably their last night together—something of that sort. I, never dreaming he would take it seriously, said that we had better betroth them, as was done with children in olden times; but Dick seemed taken with the idea, and—well, the upshot of the matter was, that you, Miss Kate, and that little boy, were engaged before we left the topic, and although your mother and Mrs. Hall sat only a few feet away, they knew nothing about it. I looked upon it as a joke, but poor Dick apparently took it in sober earnest; for next day, as he bade me good-bye, he put a ring in my hand—'For the little one,' he said, and showed me the mate of it. He's dead many a year, poor fellow; but his son is still living, and appears to be ready and willing to fulfill his part of the contract."
Mr. Stafford finished with a sly look at Kate, causing her to blush furiously, although she laughed merrily.