Can't we leave your father and his tastes alone for the present?
I would rather talk about--ourselves.

Tell me what you care about most in life ?" "Nothing," she answered listlessly.
"But that is only a phase," he persisted.

"You have had terrible trials, I know, and they must have affected your outlook on life, but you are still young, and while one is young life is always worth having." "I thought so once," she assented.

"I don't now." "But there must be--there will be compensations," he assured her.

"I know that just now you are suffering from the reaction--after all you have gone through.