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.