“I say,” he said at last.
“Yes, Dexter,” said Helen, looking up at him sadly.
“Oh, I say, don’t look at me like that,” he cried.
“You force me to, Dexter,” she said gravely.
“But ain’t you going to talk to me!”
“If I talk to you, it will only be to scold you very severely.”
Dexter sighed.
“Well,” he said, after a pause, during which he had been gazing intently in the earnest eyes before him; “you’ve got to do it, so let’s have it over. I was always glad when I had been punished at school.”
“Glad, Dexter?”
“Yes, glad it was over. It was the worst part of it waiting to have your whack!”