"Fiddle!" remarked Jim.
"It really isn't fiddle, Jim! I'm just crazy to learn things, and I'm not one bit interested in frivolity and ordinary things and people——"
"You liked people once; you liked to dance——"
"When I was a child, yes," she retorted scornfully. "But I realize, now, how short life is——"
"Fiddle," repeated Jim. "That fool college is spoiling you for fair!"
"Dad! He's a brute! You understand me, darling, don't you? Don't let him plague me."
His arm around her slender shoulder tightened; all three were laughing.
"You don't have to dance, Steve, if you don't want to," he said. "Do you consider it frivolous to dine occasionally? Meacham has just announced the possibility of food."
She nestled close to him as they went out to dinner, all three very gay and loquacious, and the two men keenly conscious of the girl's rapid development, of the serious change in her, the scarcely suppressed exuberance, the sparkling and splendid bodily vitality.
As they entered the dining room: