"Thank you for your offer; I may sometimes be glad to avail myself of it," was the reply.
They chatted a while longer, then Chester rose as if to take his leave.
"Don't go yet," said the captain. "My wife and daughters will join us presently, and feel glad to see you. Stay and take tea with us, and give us all the news about the family at The Oaks."
"Thank you," returned Chester, sitting down again. "We are all quite well, Syd busy with her preparations for going South to join Maud and Dick."
"I think before very long; but the exact time is not set yet."
"You will feel lonely--robbed of both your sisters."
"Yes, sir," Chester returned with a slight smile. "I should greatly prize a sweet young wife, who would much more than fill their places."
"Ah, yes; but this is one of the cases where it is best to make haste slowly, my young friend," the captain returned in a pleasant tone.
"I am feeling a little uneasy lest Percy Landreth or someone else may have got ahead of me," Chester said inquiringly, and with an anxious look.
"No; her father wouldn't allow any such attempt, and it is quite sure that his daughter is still heart-whole. And as I have told you before, if either suit is to prosper, I should rather it should be yours--as in that case she would not be taken far away from me."
"That is some consolation, and she is well worth waiting for," said Chester in a tone of resignation.
"So her father thinks," said the captain.
Just then there was a sound of wheels on the drive.
"The Roselands carriage," said Chester, glancing from the window; and both he and the captain rose and hurried out.
They found the whole Roselands family there--Calhoun and his wife and children; Dr. Arthur, his Marian, and their little Ronald.
Violet and her children, with Lucilla and Grace, had hastened down to receive them, and warm greetings were exchanged all around.
Chester took particular pains to get possession of a seat near Lucilla, and had many questions to ask in regard to the manner in which she had spent the long weeks of her absence from home--for long, he averred, they had seemed to him.
"Well now, they didn't to me," laughed Lucilla; "on the contrary, I thought them very short; time fairly flew."