Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/272

 "My dear child, you make me very happy."

"Are you, then, so glad at the prospect of being rid of me?" she murmured, in a tone of gentle reproach, as she held down his stately head to return his salute.

"No, my child. I am glad for the exactly contrary reason. Come, let us sit here, and discuss this matter in a reasonable manner. Ismar, here," he continued after we had taken our seats, "is twenty-five: you, Reva, are a few days past your nineteenth birthday. Assuming, then, that all goes smoothly. it will be two years and a half, at least, before you will leave me to enter into that most intimate of human relations. Two years and a half, my children, is none too long for that attuning of two minds to each other, from which results perfect harmony of character. I have even some hopes," he went on, patting meanwhile the little hand he held in his, "that I need not lose you even then. I understand from Utis, that Osna Diotha thinks of settling here permanently in her native district. In that case, Ismar, there will be little to recall you to Maoria."

"I can assure you," said I earnestly, "there is nothing whatever to recall me there; since I have never—that is, I have no consciousness of ever having been in that island."

"So much the better for my little plan," said Hulmar.

"Olav and Ialma will, of course, give me the pleasure of their society for a year or two. But it has been arranged, that eventually they shall make their home with Ialma's father, who has no son. At times, I must confess, I have looked forward with some sinking of the heart to the time when I should be obliged to live here in soli-