She looked again at Dale and found him listening to Ann. Again the Colonel proved unpromising. One slight remark was entirely lost on someone else, and Miss Liz offered more remote possibilities than before. After the situation recommenced its torture, rather wearily she said to her plate:
"Hey, diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon."
"I love that one," he whispered, and, taking up her meter, continued: "The little dog howled, and the pretty girl scowled, but promised to make up soon! That's the second verse."
Another silence, but not so prolonged, when her voice reached him:
"Brent, Brent, the rich man's son, broke his word and away he run!"
"Heart," he corrected. "'Broke his heart,' is the way that goes!"
The silence was desperate now, and, after he had exhausted many forms of pleading, she simply said:
"Hark, hark, the dogs do bark, the beggars are coming to town!"
"I don't think it's nice to be so personal in our Mother Goose party," he reproved her. "However, if you insist—"
"But I don't insist!"