“I don’t know, ’m!”
“Was your mother there?”
“Yassum!”
There was never any use in trying to make Chloe talk when she had decided not to, so Helen threw off her wraps and with a peep in the mirror where one could see from top to toe, she hastened to the aid of Count de Lestis.
“Mother will be along soon and she can do wonders with people who are bashful,” declared Helen, “but I’ll try my hand at it until she comes. They must dance, then they will thaw out.”
“Certainly, and will you dance with me to show them how?”
Helen forgot all about the fact that she had come with Dr. Wright and he might reasonably expect to claim the first dance.
“Yes, but you must introduce me to all these people and I’ll ask some of the girls to dance while you go get the young men to come fall in the breach.”
The shiny-eyed girls were willing enough and the young men seemed to think if the count didn’t mind his walls falling down, far be it from them to hold them up, so in a few moments the sad crowd were in a gale of good humor. The old farmer waked up and his wife looked as though she might try her new creaky shoes on the waxed floor if anyone would only ask her.