"Ah! now I understand. Is the vexing question as to the colour and
material of the wedding gown?"

"Mamma thinks the first thing is to settle when the ceremony is to be
performed. She does not seem to sympathise in Will's haste to have it
over."

"Which is not at all surprising," returned the captain, glancing at his
two older daughters. "I can quite understand the feeling. But what is
the time proposed by Will?"

"June of this year."

"June seems a very suitable month, but if you were my daughter I should
say not June of this year--since you are both young enough to wait for
that of next or the year after."

"Ah, sir! that was not the way you talked when you wanted to rob mamma
of one of her daughters."

"No; but I was some years older than Mr. Croly is now, and your sister
Violet very womanly in her ways."

"And I am not? Ah, well! perhaps it is fortunate for me that the
decision rest with mamma and grandpa."

"So you, too, are in haste?" queried the captain, regarding her with a
look of amusement.

"Not at all," she returned, drawing herself up with an air of pretended