"Nonsense!" he said again. "You want to. You know you do. No one pays any attention to Mrs. Grundy out here. She simply doesn't exist. Scott can come and play propriety. He's staid enough to chaperon a whole girls' school."
"Thanks, old chap," said Scott. "But I'm not coming down again, either."
Eustace looked over his head. "Then you must, Isabel. Come along! Just to oblige Miss Bathurst! It won't hurt you to sit in a safe corner for one dance."
Isabel looked up at him with a startled expression, as of one trapped.
"Oh, don't ask me!" she said. "I couldn't!"
"No, don't!" said Dinah. "It isn't, fair to bother anyone else on my account! I'm dreadfully sorry to have to refuse. But—in any case—I ought not to come."
"What of that?" said Eustace lightly. "Do you always do what you ought?
What a dull programme!"
Dinah flushed. "Dull but respectable," she said, with a touch of spirit.
He laughed. "But I'm not asking you to do anything very outrageous, and I shouldn't ask it at all if I didn't know you wanted to do it. Besides, you promised. It's generally considered the respectable thing to do to keep one's promises."
That reached Dinah. She wavered perceptibly. "Lady Grace will be so vexed," she murmured.
He snapped his fingers in careless disdain.