"Do you hear often from the girls in Riceville?"
"Not very often," said Mollie June.
We can hardly describe this reply as helpful.
Again he struggled mightily, with the banal kind of result that usually follows such paroxysms conversational topic-hunting:
"You must find your life here and in Washington wonderful."
"It seemed so, at first," said Mollie June.
"But it didn't last?"
Merriam was conscious of danger on this tack but he must have a moment's rest before he could wrestle with the void again.
"No," said Mollie June.
Merriam waited, not shirking his responsibilities but conscious that she meant to continue. She was always deliberate of speech--a fact which gave a piquant significance to her simplest words.