“Do you call me by that name, now?” pursued the Judge, curiously.
“No, sir.”
“What do you call me?”
She hung her head and twisted her fingers together. “Bethany would rather not speak that name out loud,” she said, in a low voice.
“It isn’t Judge Sancroft, then,” ventured her senior, kindly.
She shook her head.
“W-w-whisper it,” proposed Titus, bluntly. “I’ve seen girls whisper things when they would not speak them out.”
She mumbled something to herself that the boy could not hear.
“G-g-go say it in his ear,” stuttered Titus, impatiently.
Bethany looked shyly at the Judge.