"I was obliged to dance with somebody," she resumed after a minute, "I couldn't sit against the wall the whole evening, could I?
And nobody else asked me,--but I don't like him any the better for that." "And your father?
Does he dislike him also ?" he asked.
"How can one tell?
He says he is useful." There was a playful tenderness in her voice.
"Useful?
You mean in politics ?" She laughed.

"How else in the world can any one be useful to Father?
It must be freezing." "No, it is melting; but it is too cold to play about out of doors." "Your teeth are chattering!" she rejoined with scornful merriment.
"They are not," he retorted indignantly.

"I am as comfortable as you are." "Well, I'm not comfortable at all.

Something--I don't know what it was--happened to my ankle.

I think I twisted it when I fell." "And all this time you haven't said a word.