I wish that the air would give me back my words; but that it never yet was known to do.
"I will try if you like," say I, cheerfully, but a little shyly, as, like the March Hare and the Hatter in the "Mad Sea Party," I move up past the empty chairs to the one next him.

"I do not see, after all, why I should not get quite used to it in time! Roger! Roger! it is a name I have always been very partial to until" (laughing a little) "the Claimant threw discredit on all Rogers!" He is looking at me again.

After all, I must have been mistaken.

There is no shadow of disappointment or mortification near him.

He is smiling with some friendliness.
"You must never mind what _I_ say," I continue, dragging my wicker chair along the shortly-shorn sward a little nearer to him.