"Not to-night," said Isabel with quick decision. "Dinah is going to bed very soon."
"Really?" He stood by Dinah's couch, looking down at her with his faint supercilious smile. "Do you submit to that sort of tyranny?" he said.
She held up her hand to him. "It isn't tyranny. It is the very dearest kindness in the world. Don't you know the difference?"
He held the little, confiding hand a moment or two, and she felt his fingers close around it with a strength that seemed as if it encompassed her very soul. "There are two ways of looking at everything," he said. "But I shouldn't be too docile if I were you; not, that is, if you want to get any fun out of life. Remember, life is short."
He let her go with the words, straightened himself to his full, splendid height, and sauntered with regal arrogance to the door.
"I want you, Stumpy," he said, in passing. "There are one or two letters for you to deal with. You can come to my room while I dress."
"In that case, I had better say good night too," said Scott, rising.
"Oh no," said Dinah, with her quick smile. "You can come in and say good night to me afterwards--when I'm in bed. Can't he, Isabel?"
She had fallen into the habit of calling Isabel by her Christian name from hearing Scott use it. It had begun almost in delirium, and now it came so naturally that she never dreamed of reverting to the more formal mode of address.
Scott smiled in his quiet fashion, and turned to join his brother. "I will with pleasure," he said.
Eustace threw a mocking glance backwards. "It seems that philosophers rush in where mere ordinary males fear to tread," he observed. "Stumpy, allow me to congratulate you on your privileges!"
"Thanks, old chap!" Scott made answer in his tired voice. "But there is no occasion for the ordinary male to envy me my compensations."
"What did he mean by that?" said Dinah, as the door closed.
Isabel moved to her side and sat down on the edge of the couch. "Scott is very lonely, little one," she said.
"Is he?" said Dinah, wonderingly. "But--surely he must have lots of friends. He's such a dear."
Isabel smiled at her rather sadly. "Yes, everyone who knows him thinks that."