“I’m afraid you didn’t enjoy the skating this afternoon.”
“Not much. The mornings are pleasanter. We came too late.”
“Shall you come to-morrow morning?”
“Yes; I have promised my young sisters to bring them for a long morning. They won’t let me off.”
“Do they skate?”
“Hetty skates. The little one only slides. She is a most determined slider.”
“Does Colonel Marchant never come with you?”
“Never. He does not care about walking with girls.”
“Perhaps it is presumptuous in a bachelor to speculate on domestic feelings, but I think if I were a widower with five nice daughters my chief delight would be in going about with them.”
“If you look round among your friends I fancy you will find that kind of father the exception rather than the rule,” Eve answered, with a touch of bitterness.