“Then you think Helen and Watts care for each other?” asked Mrs. Pierce, flushing with pleasure, to find her own opinion of such a delightful possibility supported by her husband’s.

“I think,” said Mr. Pierce, “that the less we parents concern ourselves with love the better.  If I have made opportunities for Helen and Watts to see something of each other, I have only done what was to their mutual interests.  Any courtesy I have shown him is well enough accounted for on the ground of his father’s interest in my institution, without the assumption of any matrimonial intentions.  However, I am not opposed to a marriage.  Watts is the son of a very rich man of the best social position in New York, besides being a nice fellow in himself.  Helen will make any man a good wife, and whoever wins her will not be the poorer.  If the two can fix it between themselves, I shall cry nunc dimittis, but further than this, the deponent saith and doeth not.”

“I am sure they love each other,” said Mrs. Pierce.

“Well,” said Mr. Pierce, “I think if most parents would decide whom it was best for their child to marry, and see that the young people saw just enough of each other, before they saw too much of the world, they could accomplish their purpose, provided they otherwise kept their finger out of the pot of love.  There is a certain period in a man’s life when he must love something feminine, even if she’s as old as his grandmother.  There is a certain period in a girl’s life when it is well-nigh impossible for her to say ‘no’ to a lover.  He really only loves the sex, and she really loves the love and not the lover; but it is just as well, for the delusion lasts quite as long as the more personal love that comes later.  And, being young, they need less breaking for double harness.”

Mrs. Pierce winced.  Most women do wince when a man really verges on his true conclusions concerning love in the abstract, however satisfactory his love in the concrete may be to them.  “I am sure they love each other,” she affirmed.

“Yes, I think they do,” replied Mr. Pierce.  “But five years in the world before meeting would have possibly brought quite a different conclusion.  And now, my dear, if we are not going to have the young people eloping in the yacht by themselves, we had better leave both the subject and the room, for we have kept them fifteen minutes as it is.”

CHAPTER VI.

A monologue and A dialogue.

It was at the end of this day’s yachting that Peter was having his “unsocial walk.”  Early on the morrow he would be taking the train for his native town, and the thought of this, in connection with other thoughts, drew stern lines on his face.  His conclusions were something to this effect: