"I am more than pleased. I've been afraid to ask you to do this work for me—though I've had it in mind."
"Why afraid?"
"I don't know. I somehow got the impression lately that you didn't like me personally."
"How could you think such a thing!" she protested.
"Just a vague impression—caught, perhaps, from little gestures you sometimes made, little frowns that sometimes came to your brow, little flashes of hostility from your eyes."
"I didn't mean it, comrade!" she said, demurely, while her eyes danced and her mouth twitched playfully.
"And you've fully weighed the cost?"
"Fully."
"You know that you will be forced to spend most of your time in my office?"
"I'll try to endure it," she laughed.