"And Lady Cramer?" "I do not think she had a nice time. She was weary of company, and it was an effort for her to be quite polite during the last week." "You ought, then, to have come home." "I had no excuse for doing so." "And you had an excuse for staying, eh?" "Yes." "Lord Cramer?" "He begged me to stay. And, as I am going to marry him, I did what he desired, of course." "Of course. And, of course, you will do what your father desires?" "If Father is reasonable." "The Fifth Command says you are to obey your father, and it does not make any exceptions as to whether he is reasonable or unreasonable." "I intend to marry Richard, and no other man in all the wide world." "You do not require to be so pointed about it. There is no one here wishes to prevent you." "No one can prevent me, Aunt. I love Richard and he loves me. We fell in love with each other the moment we met." "That is the right way. I like men that go over head and ears at first sight. Most take little careful steps, hesitating, fearing, one at a time. Cowardly lovers! No woman wants such. She just looks scornfully at them, and then turns her eyes toward something pleasanter." All afternoon they talked on this and kindred subjects, and the time went so rapidly that the clock struck five before Mrs. Caird reflected that the Minister was two or three hours behind his usual time. What was keeping him? What was wrong? Then she began to worry about Donald; for, if anything usual becomes unusual, our first thought is not--what is right? or what is happy or profitable? but, always, what is wrong? And Mrs. Caird's anxieties drifted to the youth she loved so dearly. "I wonder! I wonder whatever is wrong, Marion? Your father is always home by three, or at most four o'clock. I am feared something is wrong with Donald." And, in spite of Marion's optimistic persuasions, she was constantly asking her heart this woeful question. From the door to the gate she went with tiresome frequency, but it was after eight o'clock ere she saw two men walking leisurely toward the house. The twilight was over the earth, and nothing was very clear, but she knew them. Hurrying into the house she called to Marion in a voice of great pleasure and excitement: "Your father is coming! And Donald is with him! And what can that mean?" "Something good, Aunt." But Mrs. Caird did not hear her. She was ordering this and that luxury, which she knew would be welcome to the belated travelers, and she had the natural wisdom and good-nature which never once asked, "What kept you so late?" She was satisfied with their presence, and with the fact that both were happy, and in the most affectionate mood with each other. She placed Donald's chair beside her own and, when he touched her hand, or smiled in her face, or whispered, "Dear, dear Aunt!" she had a full payment for all her anxious hours about him.