"No, dear," he answered firmly. "Neither now nor at any time. I gave it to you as a token of friendship, and I would like you to keep it always for that reason."
"Always?" questioned Dinah. "Even if--if I never marry at all?"
"Certainly," he said.
"Because I never shall marry now," she said, speaking with difficulty. "I--have quite given up that idea."
"I should like you to keep it in any case," Scott said.
"You are very good," she said earnestly. "I--I wonder you will have anything to do with me now that you know how--how wicked I am."
"I don't think you wicked," he said.
"Don't you?" She opened her heavy eyes a little. "You don't blame me for--for--" She broke off shuddering, and as she did so, there came again the rumble and roar of a distant train. "Then why did you stop me?" she whispered tensely.
Scott was silent for a moment or two. He was gazing straight before him. At length, "I stopped you," he said, "because I had to. It doesn't matter why. You would have done the same in my place. But I don't blame you, partly because it is not my business, and partly because I know quite well that you didn't realize what you were doing."
"I did realize," Dinah said. "If it weren't for you--because you are so good--nothing would have stopped me. Even now--even now--" again the hot tears came--"I've nothing to live for, and--and--God--doesn't--care." She turned her face into her arm and wept silently.
Scott made a sudden movement, and threw his cigarette away. Then swiftly he bent over her.
"Dinah," he said, "stop crying! You're making a big mistake."
His tone was arresting, imperative. She looked up at him almost in spite of herself. His eyes gazed straight into hers, and it seemed to her that there was something magnetic, something that was even unearthly, in their close regard.
"You are making a mistake," he repeated. "God always cares. He cared enough to send a friend to look after you. Do you want any stronger proof than that?"
"I--don't--know," Dinah said, awe-struck.
"Think about it!" Scott insisted. "Do you seriously imagine that it was just chance that brought me along at that particular moment? Do you think it was chance that made you draw back yesterday from giving yourself to a man you don't love? Was it chance that sent you to Switzerland in the first place? Don't you know in your heart that God has been guiding you all through?"