The others talked platitudes and themselves.

He had encouraged her to talk of HERSELF and of the things she liked.

He had, too, about him an assurance and dominating personality which, although it made her a little afraid of him, only added to his attractiveness.
While she stood wondering how many times the white-haired young lawyer would tell her it was so nice to have her back, she felt a slight pressure on her arm and turned to face Bart.
"You are wanted, please, Miss Lucy; may I offer you my arm?
Excuse me, Bunsby--I'll give her to you again in a minute." Lucy slipped her arm into Bart's, and asked simply, "What for ?" "To finish our talk, of course.

Do you suppose I'm going to let that tow-head monopolize you ?" he answered, pressing her arm closer to his side with his own.
Lucy laughed and tapped Bart with her fan in rebuke, and then there followed a bit of coquetry in which the young girl declared that he was "too mean for anything, and that she'd never seen anybody so conceited, and if he only knew, she might really prefer the 'tow head' to his own;" to which Bart answered that his only excuse was that he was so lonely he was nearly dead, and that he had only come to save his life--the whole affair culminating in his conducting her back to the sofa with a great flourish and again seating himself beside her.
"I've been watching you," he began when he had made her comfortable with a small cushion behind her shoulders and another for her pretty feet.

"You don't act a bit like Miss Jane." As he spoke he leaned forward and flicked an imaginary something from her bare wrist with that air which always characterized his early approaches to most women.
"Why ?" Lucy asked, pleased at his attentions and thanking him with a more direct look.
"Oh, I don't know.