"No; I won't 'come along.' And I think it's very rude of you not to take an answer."
"All right," he said cheerfully. "Then will you come and have some supper?"
"Why, it isn't half an hour ago since we had some."
"Then come and see me eat some more," he suggested.
"Thank you; but I am never very fond of seeing animals fed, even at the Zoo!"
"That was rather good," he said, with a grin. "My sister, Nell couldn't have put that one in more neatly."
"Your sister Nell? That's the girl over there, dancing with Captain White? How pretty she is!"
"Think so? Yes, she is, now you mention it. We are considered very much alike."
The girlish laughter, which he had been waiting for, rang out, and, taking advantage of it, Dick coaxed her into a corner on the stairs, where they could flirt to their hearts' content.
"I wonder whether you'd be offended if I told you that you were the jolliest—I mean nicest—girl I've met?" said the young vagabond, with an assumption of innocence and humility which robbed the remark of any offense—at any rate, for his hearer, whose eyes sparkled.