"I would like to--always," she whispered.
"Thank you," he said. "You are kinder than I deserve. I have done nothing to win your confidence, so it is all the more generous of you to bestow it. On the strength of your generosity I am going to ask you a question which only a friend could ask. Dinah, is there any understanding of any sort--apart from friendship--between you and Scott?"
She started slightly at the question, and in a moment firmly, with a certain authority, his hand closed upon hers.
"You needn't be afraid to speak on Scott's account," he said, with that rather grim humility that seemed so foreign to his proud nature that every sign of it stabbed her afresh. "I am not such a dog in the manger as that and he knows it."
"Oh no!" Dinah said, and her words came with a rush. "But--I told you before, didn't I?--he doesn't care for me like that. He never has--never will."
"I wonder why you say that," Eustace said.
"Because it's true!" With a species of feverish insistence she answered him. "How could I help knowing? Of course I know! Oh, please don't let us talk about it! It--it hurts me."
"I want you to bear with me," he said gently, "just for a few minutes. Dinah, what if you are making a mistake? Mistakes happen, you know. Scott is a shy sort of chap, and immensely reserved. Doesn't it occur to you that he may care for you and yet be afraid--just as you are afraid--to let you know?"
"No," Dinah said. "He doesn't. I know he doesn't!"
She spoke with her eyes upon the ground, her voice sunk very low. She felt as if she were being drawn down from the heights she desired to tread. She did not want to contemplate the problems that she knew very surely awaited her upon the lower level. She did not want to quit her sanctuary before the time.
Sir Eustace received her assurance in silence, but he kept her hand in his, and the power of his personality seemed to penetrate to the very centre of her being.
He spoke at last almost under his breath, still closely watching her downcast face. "Are you quite sure you still care for him--in that way?"
She made a quick, appealing gesture. "Oh, need I answer that? I feel so--ashamed."
"No, you needn't answer," he made steady reply. "But you've nothing to be ashamed about. Stumpy's an awful ass, you know,--always has been. He's been head over heels in love with you ever since he met you. No, you needn't let that shock you. He's such a bashful knight he'll never tell you so. You'll have to do that part of it." He smiled with faint irony. "But you may take my word for it, it is so. He has thought of nothing but you and your happiness from the very beginning of things. And--unlike someone else we know--he has had the decency always to put your happiness first."