“Not very soon, I hope,” said Violet.  “You have frequently told me you did not intend to let either of your daughters marry for years to come.”

“No, I do not; and as I dread the pain, for both them and myself, which would be caused by the necessity for refusing to let them follow their inclinations in such a matter, I sincerely hope no one will succeed in winning their affections for years to come.”

“Then if I am right about Donald and he asks your permission to make an offer to Lu, you will forbid him to do so?”

At first the captain’s only reply was an amused sort of smile.  Then he said:  “I must tell you of a talk Donald and I had, some years ago, at West Point.  You perhaps remember that I took Max and Lulu there, and found Donald already at the hotel, and we spent a few days together, the children with us nearly all the time.  One night I sent them early to bed, and, afterward, spent an hour or more talking with my friend alone on the piazza.  In that talk he expressed a great admiration for my little girl, and—­half in jest, half in earnest—­asked leave to try to win her when she should reach a proper age.  I told him certainly not for at least six years.  It is five now.”

“Then he ought to wait at least another year,” remarked Violet, who had listened with keen interest to her husband’s little story.

“Yes; and I hope he will feel that obligation and refrain, for the present at least, from courting her.  And, though I should be sorry for my friend’s disappointment, I cannot help hoping that he has not won, and will not win, my daughter’s heart.  I want to become neither his father, nor my daughter’s cousin,” he added with a slight laugh.

“Why, yes, to be sure!  I had not thought about those relationships,” exclaimed Violet, joining in his mirth.  “But,” she added, “Donald is so distant a relative of mine that, if that were the only objection, it need not, I think, stand in the way.”

“No, perhaps not.  A greater objection to me, so far as I am concerned, would be the fact that, if married to an army officer, my daughter would be kept at a distance from me nearly all the time.”

“And to me, as well as to you, that would be an almost insurmountable objection; for Lu and I are now the closest and dearest of friends—­bosom companions.  I should hardly know what to do without her—­the dear, sweet girl!”

“Ah! it makes me very happy to hear and know that,” he said with a glad smile, adding, “it is hardly news; for I have seen for a good while that you were very fond of each other.”

“Yes; we are like sisters.  I should miss Lu almost more than I shall Rosie, as we are together so much more constantly.  Oh, I don’t like to think of it! and I sincerely hope it may be years before she learns to love any other man well enough to be willing to leave her sweet home under her father’s roof.”

“A hope in which I join with all my heart,” said her husband; “and one that I trust Donald is not going to ask me to resign.”