"Who isn't! It has been a very severe winter."
"I think so, too. Are the winters here as a rule as cold as this one has been?" How modest he thought she was. She was dressed neatly in a satin shirtwaist and tailored skirt; while from beneath the skirts her small feet incased in heavy shoes peeped like mice. Her neck rose out of her bodice and he thought her throat was so very round and white; while he noticed her prominent chin more today than he had before. He liked it. Nature had been his study, and he didn't like a retreating chin. It, to his mind, was an indication of weak will, with exceptions perhaps here and there. He reposed more confidence in the person, however, when the chin was like hers, so naturally he was interested. As she sat before him with folded hands, he also observed her heavy hair, done into braids and gathered about her head. It gave her an unostentatious expression; while her eyes were as he had found them before, baffling.
"Why, no, they are not," he said. "Of course I have not seen many—in fact this is the second; but I am advised that, as a rule, the winters are very mild for this latitude."
"I see. I hope they will always be so if we continue to live here," and she laughed pleasantly.
"How do you like it in our country?" he inquired now, pleased to be in conversation with her.
"Why, I like it very well," she replied amiably. "What I have seen of it, I think I would as soon live here as back in Indiana."
"I have been in Indiana myself."
"You have?" She was cheered with the fact. He nodded.
"Yes, all over. What part of Indiana do you come from?"
"Rensselaer," she replied, shifting with comfort, and delighted that by his having been in Indiana, he was making their conversation easier.