I would go directly if you said so. Really I would."

She was hard to resist, kneeling there with her arms about Isabel and her
bright eyes lifted. Isabel took the sweet face between her hands and
kissed it.

"Let me ask Scott what he thinks!" she said. "I want to give in to you,
Dinah darling, but it's against my judgment. If it is against his
judgment too, will you be content to give it up?"

"Oh, of course," said Dinah instantly. She was confident that Scott--that
kind and gentle friend of hers--would deny her nothing. It seemed almost
superfluous to ask him.

The words had scarcely left her lips when his quiet knock came at the
sitting-room door, and he entered.

She looked round at him with a smile of quick welcome. "I'll give it up
in a minute if he says so," she said.

Isabel turned in her chair. "Come here, Stumpy!" she said. "We want your
advice. We are talking about the dance to-night. Dinah has set her heart
on going. Would it--do you think it would--do her any harm?"

Scott came up to them in his halting way. He looked at Dinah pressed
close to his sister's side, and his smile was very kindly as he said,
"Poor little Cinderella! It's hard lines; but, you know, the doctor's
last words to you were a warning against over-exerting yourself."

"But I shouldn't," she assured him eagerly. "Really, truly, I shouldn't!