e at least six weeks before I
leave girlhood for married life," returned Rosie, laughing and blushing
as she spoke.

"It is too serious a step to be taken hastily, my dear young sister,"
remarked the captain in a tone between jest and earnest; "a step that
once taken cannot be retraced--a venture involving the happiness or
misery of perhaps a lifetime; certainly the lifetime of one if not of
both."

"Oh, you frighten me!" cried Rosie, drawing a long breath and lifting
her hands with a gesture of alarm and despair; "what shall I do? Would
you recommend single blessedness--you who have twice tried laying hold
of the other horn of the dilemma?"

"Only for a time," he said. "Look well before you leap, as I did, and
then you will be in little danger of wanting to leap back again."

"You don't? you never do?" she queried in mock surprise and doubt.

"Never!" he said with a smiling, admiring glance into Violet's
beautiful eyes, watching him with not a shade of doubt or distrust in
their azure depths; "never for a moment have I been conscious of the
slightest inclination to do so."

"Thank you, my dear," Violet said. "And, Rosie, let me tell you for your
encouragement that I have known no more regret than has he. I am very
sure that if it were in our power to reconsider, the question would be
decided exactly as it was years ago."

"I believe it," responded Rosie heartily, "and that Will and I will be
able to say the same when we too have lived together for years. He is
good as gold, I know, and I shall try to be worthy of him."

The call to dinner here put an end to the conversation and the talk at
the table was upon other themes.

Shortly after the conclusion of the meal Mr. and Mrs. Dinsmore returned
to Ion, while the others, some on horseback, the rest in the family
carriage, went over to the Oaks to call upon the relatives there and
consult with them on the arrangements for the wedding, particularly the
dress of the bride and her attendants--a subject of great interest to
the ladies, especially such to the young girls, but one which the two
gentlemen--Captain Raymond and young Mr. Dinsmore--were so entirely
willing to leave to their decision that they presently excused
themselves and walked out into the grounds, Mr. Dinsmore wishing to
consult the captain in regard to some improvements that he had in
contemplation.

Then Rosie announced her errand and gave her invitation to Maud and
Sydney. It was accepted prom