Her Mother's Secret

"[...]the distaff’ and go out of the family unless my daughter should marry her cousin, Leonidas Force. He also has recently inherited a considerable estate, joining this, and, like this, with a long sea front. It is not always that young people submit to be guided by their elders in the matter of marriage, but I am happy to say that my boy and girl have very readily taken our views of the case and will follow them. So they will probably be married very early in the new year, and the old ancestral estate will not pass out of the old family name.” “I see,” said the colonel, “and I heartily congratulate you on the prospect.” Then he fell into deep thought. Presently he said: “She has not seen her lover for three years, since she was a child?”[...]".