I had not thought the child's fancy thus taken; but if it were so, I should rejoice.

He would be a good husband and a kind one, and our headstrong second daughter will need control as well as love in the battle of life." So the parents watched with anxious eyes, eager to see some indication which should encourage them in this newly-formulated hope.

When once the idea had been started, it seemed to both as if nothing could be better than a marriage between their high-spirited but affectionate and warm-hearted daughter and this knight of forty summers, who had won for himself wealth and fame, and a soldier's reputation for unblemished honour and courage in many foreign lands.

If not exactly the man to produce an immediate impression on the heart of a young girl, he might well win his way to favour in time; and certainly it did seem as though Kate took pleasure in listening to his stories of flood and field, whilst her bright eyes and merry saucy ways (for she was still her old bright self at times, and never more frequently so than in the company of Sir Robert) appeared very attractive to him.
When we are increasingly wishful for a certain turn in affairs, and begin sedulously to watch for it, unconsciously setting ourselves to work to aid and abet, and push matters on to the desired consummation, it is wonderful how easy it is to believe all is going as we wish, and to see in a thousand little trifling circumstances corroboration of our wishes.

Before another fortnight had sped by, Kate's parents had almost fully persuaded themselves of the truth of their suspicion.