is a risk, you know. You might catch influenza--or anything."

"Yes, I might, if there is any about," she replied tartly, and he saw
with relief that her petulance had faded to dull indifference. "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. We've talked about nothing
while you must have been in pain."