“Um--um--perhaps he has--and perhaps he hasn’t! We men are apt to think too much of ourselves, and you women are prone to think too much of us! Craig is a clever fellow--but--well!--he’s a _leetle_ old for you, my pretty one!--just a _leetle_ worn and battered in the battle of life to be the husband of a small fairy like you! So that the ‘honour’ of his asking you to marry him doesn’t seem so great to my mind as the ‘honour’ of your accepting him--if you _did_!--which you won’t!”
“Which I won’t!” and she slipped a loving arm round his neck. “You’re sure of that, Dad? How do you know?”
He put one hand under her chin and turned her sweet face up to his own.
“How do I know?” he echoed, and laughed as he spoke. “Why, because you’re not in love with him! God bless my soul! Do you think I’m such an old noodle as not to know when a girl’s in love?--and my own little girlie too! There, there! You can’t play bo-peep with _me_! He has proposed to you--well and good!--it’s a bit of a cheek on his part, but never mind that!--and you’ve thought it might be a good thing for you to be established in life as the wife of a distinguished Oxford man,--but--see here, my child!” And his bantering tone changed to one of earnest and tender gravity. “We are living in queer times--this old world has got a shock straight to the heart in this war, and men and women are drifting away from the faith of their forefathers--the faith and right principle which made Britain ‘Great.’ Don’t go with the fatal ‘swim,’ Sylvia!--it’s bound to end in a whirlpool of trouble. Keep to the straight lines of life,--and one of those straight lines is love. Love, my little one!--nothing but real, pure love can make a woman happy in marriage.”
“Dear Dad! You are quite eloquent!” she said, and smiled up into his eyes. “And you don’t think I’m in love with your distinguished friend?”
“Not a bit!” he replied. “Nor is he really in love with you! He thinks you a pretty little armful of charms--which you _are_--but he wouldn’t know how to treat you as a wife, nor would he know how to treat _any_ wife! He’s past all that. His habits are settled, and he wouldn’t change them to please any woman!”
“No, I suppose he wouldn’t!” she murmured meditatively. “And those habits are rather trying--sometimes!”