There was a sudden sympathy between these two, and sudden sympathies are the best.
"Will you give an old man a trial ?" he asked.

"They will laugh at you." She handed him her programme.
"Let them laugh!" she said.
He took the next dance, which happened to be vacant on her card.

Almost immediately the music began, and they glided off together.

Maggie began with the feeling that she was dancing with her own father, but this wore off before they had made much progress through the crowd, and gave way to the sensation that she had for partner the best dancer she had ever met, gray-haired, stout, and middle-aged.
"I wanted to speak to you," she said.
"Ah!" Steinmetz answered.

He was steering with infinite skill.