"It was hardly necessary to utter it; but if you had danced with him only half as often, it would have flattered his vanity less."
"How could I help it, when he asked me? There were more gentlemen than ladies present, and I did not like to break up the sets," protested Nellie.
"Of course not; but being the lion of the occasion, don't you think he might have divided himself up a little more equitably?"
"I don't know; but I couldn't choose my own partner," replied Nellie, her cheeks glowing.
"You like Don John very well?"
"I certainly do, father," replied she, honestly. "Don't you?"
"Perhaps it don't make so much difference whether I like him or not."
"You have praised him to the skies, father. You said he was a very smart boy; and not one in a hundred young fellows takes hold of business with so much energy and good judgment. I am sure, if you had not said so much in his favor, I shouldn't have thought half so much of him," argued Nellie.
"I don't blame you for thinking well of him, my child," interposed her father. "I only hope you are not becoming too much interested in him."
"I only like him as a good-hearted, noble fellow," added Nellie, with a deeper blush than before, for she could not help understanding just what her father meant.