"Is she really like that, Father?"
"Really like that," replied Ross sorrowfully.
"Then," announced Arethusa with decision, and her red mouth pursed disapprovingly, "I don't believe that I want to go to her party!"
Elinor struggled between exasperation and a desire to laugh.
"Mrs. Chestnut is lovely, Arethusa, and so is her daughter. They only have the dance at the hotel because their own house is too small for so many people at once. Everyone has their large parties there nowadays. If you are going to believe everything your father says, you'll be having a very hard time. And if he keeps on talking this way, I'll have to send him out. You mustn't pay so much attention to him."
"Nice, wifely speech, that," observed Ross.
But Arethusa had glimpsed the laughter in his quizzical dark eyes. She realized now he had been teasing, so she turned clear away from him to give all her attention to Elinor, who could be more trusted.
"Do you know how to dance, dear?" asked Elinor.
"Some," replied Arethusa, "Timothy taught me down in the barn. Aunt 'Liza says dancing is very wicked," (Miss Eliza had a truly deep and honest horror of round dances). "But Timothy says it isn't a bit wrong, and I just love it! She doesn't know," added almost confidentially, "that Timothy ever showed me how."
"'Tis just as well, I suppose," murmured Ross.