o your scheme, I can't
give it you. I don't approve, and because I don't, I tell Isabel that she
ought to refuse to carry it through. I have no right to control her
either, but I think my opinion means something to her. I hope it does at
least."

He looked at Isabel, but she said nothing. Only she put her arm about
Dinah as she stood.

There followed a few moments of very difficult silence; then abruptly the
mutiny went out of Dinah's face and attitude.

"I'm horrid," she said, in a voice half-choked. "Forgive me! You--you
shouldn't spoil me so."

"Oh, don't, please!" said Scott. "I am infernally sorry. I know what it
means to you."

He took out his cigarette-case and turned away with a touch of
embarrassment. She saw that for some reason he was moved.

Impulsively she left Isabel and came to him. "Don't think any more about
it!" she said. "I'll go to bed and be good."

"You always are," said Scott, faintly smiling.

"No, no, I'm not! What a fib! You know I'm not. But I'm going to be good
this time--so that you shall have something nice to remember me by."
Dinah's voice quivered still, but she managed to smile.

He gave her a quick look. "You will always be the pleasantest memory I
have," he said.

The words were quietly spoken, so quietly that they sounded almost
matter-of-fact. But Dinah flushed with pleasure, detecting the sincerity
in his voice.

"It's very nice of you to say that," she said, "especially as I deserve
it so little. Thank you, Mr.--Scott!" She uttered the name timidly. She
had never ventured to use it before.

He held out his hand to her. "Oh, drop the prefix!" he said. "Call me
Stumpy like the rest of the world!"

But Dinah shook her head with vehemence. There were tears standing in her
eyes, but she smiled through them. "I will not call you Stumpy!" she
declared. "It doesn't suit you a bit. I never even think of you by that
name. It--it is perfectly ludicrous applied to you!"

"Some people think I am ludicrous," observed Scott.

His hand grasped hers firmly for a moment, and let it go. The steadfast
friendliness in his eyes shone out like a beacon. And there came to Dinah
a swift sense of great and uplifting pride at the thought that she
numbered this man among her friends.

The moment passed, but the warmth at her heart remained. She went back to
Isabel, and slipped down into the shelter of her arm, feeling oddly shy
and also inexplicably happy. Her disappointment had shrunk to