I hope you and Miss Lucilla are both quite well ?" giving her a bow and smile as he spoke.
"Entirely, thank you, and have just come in from our usual early stroll together about the grounds.

I hope you rested well.

Take that easy-chair and don't let our presence interfere with your enjoyment of your letters." Keith declined that invitation, saying he felt a strong inclination for a breath of the sweet morning air before the summons to the breakfast table should come; so would read his letters upon the veranda, and, with them in his hand, passed out of the room.
"I strongly suspect that was from a polite disinclination to hinder us in our work, papa," remarked Lucilla in a sprightly tone, as her father uncovered the machine and made all things ready for her work.
"Quite likely," he responded, "for I never met anyone more truly polite and thoughtful for others.

He is a Christian man and acts from Christian principles in all that he does." "As his friend, my father, does," she said with a look of filial reverence up into his face as he stood by her side.
"And as I trust my daughter does and will ever do," he returned with grave earnestness, then began his dictation.
They made rapid work and had finished and joined Keith upon the veranda before the ringing of the breakfast bell summoned all to their morning meal.
"Rosie has an ideal wedding day, I think," remarked Violet as she poured the coffee; "that shower in the night having laid the dust in the roads and made the air deliciously cool." "Also refreshed vegetation," added her husband, "so that trees and shrubs and flowers are as fresh and fragrant as possible." "The sun shines brightly, too," added Grace, "reminding one of the old saying I have so often heard quoted: 'Happy is the bride on whom the sun shines.'" "It is pleasant to see it shining, yet I do not believe Rosie would hesitate a moment, or feel the least anxiety about its effect upon her future happiness, if the rain were pouring down," said Lucilla; "because she has great confidence in her bridegroom that is to be, and not a particle of superstition in her nature." "That is giving her high praise," said Keith, "for there are few who are entirely free from it, though very many are hardly aware of its hold upon them." "You are quite correct, I think, sir," remarked Dr.Percival; "we are all apt to be blind to our own feelings, and hardly conscious that our prejudices and superstitions are such, blind to our weakness--even more to the mental than to the physical." "Then how well it is that there is no occasion for their exercise, or for battling with them to-day," observed Violet in a sprightly tone; "and though, of course, mamma and all of us must, when Rosie is gone, miss our constant sweet companionship with her, we ought not to mourn, but rather rejoice that she is going into a Christian family and gaining a devoted Christian for a life companion." "Yes; that is indeed a cause for joy and gratitude," said Keith.
"Father, will Mr.Croly be any relation to us after he gets married to Aunt Rosie ?" queried Ned.
"Yes, my son; brother to your mamma and me, and uncle to the rest of you." "Meaning Neddie himself and Elsie, papa ?" Grace said half interrogatively and with an amused little laugh.
"Ah, yes! he is certainly too young to be, or wish to be, that to my older daughters," returned her father with a look of amusement.
"No danger that he will want to claim that relationship, Gracie," laughed Lucilla.

"Even Walter does not, though I know you are a particular favourite with him; but he, to be sure, is still younger than Mr.Croly by some years." "It is at two o'clock Aunt Rosie is to be married, then there will be the wedding feast, and after that the bride and groom will go on a journey," said Neddie, as if bestowing a piece of valuable information upon his hearers.
"Yes," said Elsie, "but, as everybody knows it, what's the use of telling it ?" "I thought perhaps Cousin Donald and Cousin Dick didn't know it--at least, not all of it," said Ned.
Then his father told him he had talked quite enough, and must be quiet during the rest of the meal.
"We who are to be the bride's attendants should go over early, I think," remarked Lucilla.