issed it.

"Let me ask Scott what he thinks!" she said. "I want to give in to you,
Dinah darling, but it's against my judgment. If it is against his
judgment too, will you be content to give it up?"

"Oh, of course," said Dinah instantly. She was confident that Scott--that
kind and gentle friend of hers--would deny her nothing. It seemed almost
superfluous to ask him.

The words had scarcely left her lips when his quiet knock came at the
sitting-room door, and he entered.

She looked round at him with a smile of quick welcome. "I'll give it up
in a minute if he says so," she said.

Isabel turned in her chair. "Come here, Stumpy!" she said. "We want your
advice. We are talking about the dance to-night. Dinah has set her heart
on going. Would it--do you think it would--do her any harm?"

Scott came up to them in his halting way. He looked at Dinah pressed
close to his sister's side, and his smile was very kindly as he said,
"Poor little Cinderella! It's hard lines; but, you know, the doctor's
last words to you were a warning against over-exerting yourself."

"But I shouldn't," she assured him eagerly. "Really, truly, I shouldn't!
I walked all the way to the village with you yesterday, and wasn't a bit
tired--or hardly a bit--when I got back."

"You looked jaded to death," he said.

"I am afraid it is thumbs down," said Isabel, a touch of regret in her
voice.

"Oh no,--no!" entreated Dinah. "Mr. Studley, please--please say I may go!
I promise I won't dance too much. I promise I'll stop directly I'm
tired."

"My dear child," Scott said, "it would be sheer madness for you to
attempt to dance at all. Isabel," he turned to his sister with most
unusual sharpness, "how can you tantalize her in this way? Say No at
once! You know perfectly well she isn't fit for it."

Isabel made no attempt to argue the point. "You hear, Dinah?" she said.

A quick throb of anger went through Dinah. She disengaged herself
quickly, and stood up. "Mr. Studley," she said in a voice that quivered,
"it's not right--it's not fair! How can you know what is good for me? And
even if you did, what--what right--" She broke off, trembling and holding
to Isabel's chair to steady herself.

Scott's eyes, very level, very kind, were looking straight at her in a
fashion that checked the hot words on her lips. "My child, no right
whatever," he said. "I have no more power to control your actions than
the man in the moon. But if you want my approval t