ng, and if--if I ever do anything so
bad again, we're to be sent home."

"I call that unreasonable," said Scott with decision. "It was not such a
serious matter as all that. If you want my opinion, I think it was a
mistake--a small mistake--on your part; nothing more."

"But that wasn't all," said Dinah, looking away from him and quickening
her pace, "I--I have offended your brother too."

"Good heavens!" said Scott. "And is that serious too?"

"Don't laugh!" protested Dinah. "Of course it's serious. He--he won't
even look at me this morning." The sound of tears came suddenly into
her voice. "I was waiting for you on the verandah a little while ago,
and--and he went by with Rose and never glanced my way. All
because--because--oh, I am a little fool!" she declared, with an angry
stamp of the foot as she walked.

"He's the fool!" said Scott rather shortly. "I shouldn't bother myself
over that if I were you."

"I can't help it," said Dinah, her voice squeaking on a note
half-indignant, half-piteous. "I--I behaved so idiotically, just like a
raw schoolgirl. And I hate myself for it now!"

Scott looked at her for the first time since the beginning of her
confidences. "Do you know, Miss Bathurst," he said, "I have a suspicion
that you are much too hard on yourself. Of course I don't know what
happened, but I do know that my brother is much more likely to have been
in the wrong than you were. The best thing you can do is simply to
dismiss the matter from your mind. Behave as if nothing had happened! Cut
him next time! It's far the best way of treating him."

Dinah smiled woefully. "And he will spread himself at Rose's feet like
all the rest, and never come near me again."

Scott frowned a little. "Miss de Vigne won't have the monopoly, I can
assure you."

"She will," protested Dinah. "She knows how to flirt without being
caught. I don't."

"Thank the gods for that!" said Scott with fervour. "So he tried to
flirt, did he? And you objected. Was that it?"

"Something like that," murmured Dinah, with hot face averted.

"Then in heaven's name, continue to object!" he said, with unusual
vehemence. "You did the right thing, child. Don't be drawn into doing
what others do! Strike out a straight line for yourself, and stick to it!
Above all, don't be ashamed of sticking to it! No woman was ever yet the
better or the more attractive for cultivating her talent for flirting.
Don't you know that it is your very genuineness