“How good of him!” she said, with quick gratitude.

“Yes, he is good,” Scott’s voice was tender.  “I couldn’t sleep last night, and he came into my room, and we had a long talk.  He is one of the best, Dinah; one of the best.  I’m afraid you’ve made—­rather a poor exchange.”

Something in his tone banished the last of Dinah’s shyness.  She gave him her basket of china and prepared to descend.  He stretched up a courteous hand to help her, but she would have none of it.  “You are never to say that—­or anything like it—­again,” she said severely.  “If—­if you weren’t so dreadfully tired, I believe I’d be really angry.  As it is—­” she reached the ground and stood there before him, a small, purposeful figure clad in the great apron that wrapped about her like a garment.

“As it is—­” he suggested meekly, setting the basket on a chair and turning back to face her.

Two quivering hands came out to him in the gloaming, and fastened resolutely on his coat.  “Oh, Greatheart,” whispered a tremulous voice, “I love you so much—­so much—­I want—­to kiss you!”

“My darling,” answered Greatheart softly, “you can’t want it—­more than I do.”

His arms closed about her; he drew her to his breast.

* * * * *

“Arrah thin, what would I cry for at all?” said Biddy, as she lay down that night.  “I’ve got herself and Master Scott to care for, and maybe—­some day—­the Almighty will remember old Biddy for good, and give another little one into her care.”

* * * * *

“And you left them quite happy?” smiled Rose to her lover two days later.  “It’s a very suitable arrangement, isn’t it?  I always used to think that Dinah and your brother should make a match.”

“Oh, quite suitable,” agreed Eustace lazily, an odd blend of irony and satisfaction in his tone.  “They will be happy enough.  Stumpy, you know, is just the sort of chivalrous ass that a child like Dinah can appreciate.  They’ll probably live in the seventh heaven, and fancy that no one else has ever been within a million miles of it.”

“Poor little Dinah!” murmured Rose.  “She will never know what she has missed.”

And, “Just as well perhaps,” said Sir Eustace, with his faintly cynical smile.