"Probably; yet I shall want his opinion; and besides he is your guardian
as well as your grandfather."

"Along with you, mamma; and I love him as both, he is so dear and kind."

"He is indeed," assented her mother. "He has told me more than once or
twice that my children are scarcely less dear to him than his own."

"Partly because our father was his dear friend as well as his
son-in-law," added Violet softly.

"Yes; they were bosom friends before I was born," her mother said with a
far-away look in her eyes.

"Then you must have been very much younger than he, Grandma Elsie,"
remarked Grace, half inquiringly.

"Sixteen years younger. I was in my ninth year when I saw him first, and
more than twice that age before I thought of him as anything but a dear,
kind friend--my father's friend and mine."

"And after that he seemed to you to grow younger, did he not, mamma?"
asked Rosie.

"Yes; when he joined us in Europe I had not seen him for two years, and
as regarded age he seemed to have been standing still while I grew up
to him; and in the daily and intimate intercourse of those months I
learned that his worth was far greater than that of any other man of my
acquaintance--excepting my father. Ah, there was never a better man, a
truer friend, a kinder, more devoted husband and father than he."