"He's the fool!" said Scott rather shortly. "I shouldn't bother myself over that if I were you."
"I can't help it," said Dinah, her voice squeaking on a note half-indignant, half-piteous. "I--I behaved so idiotically, just like a raw schoolgirl. And I hate myself for it now!"
Scott looked at her for the first time since the beginning of her confidences. "Do you know, Miss Bathurst," he said, "I have a suspicion that you are much too hard on yourself. Of course I don't know what happened, but I do know that my brother is much more likely to have been in the wrong than you were. The best thing you can do is simply to dismiss the matter from your mind. Behave as if nothing had happened! Cut him next time! It's far the best way of treating him."
Dinah smiled woefully. "And he will spread himself at Rose's feet like all the rest, and never come near me again."
Scott frowned a little. "Miss de Vigne won't have the monopoly, I can assure you."
"She will," protested Dinah. "She knows how to flirt without being caught. I don't."
"Thank the gods for that!" said Scott with fervour. "So he tried to flirt, did he? And you objected. Was that it?"
"Something like that," murmured Dinah, with hot face averted.
"Then in heaven's name, continue to object!" he said, with unusual vehemence. "You did the right thing, child. Don't be drawn into doing what others do! Strike out a straight line for yourself, and stick to it! Above all, don't be ashamed of sticking to it! No woman was ever yet the better or the more attractive for cultivating her talent for flirting. Don't you know that it is your very genuineness and straightforwardness that is your charm?"
Dinah looked at him in sheer surprise. "I haven't got any charm," she said. "That's just the trouble. It was only my dancing that made your brother fancy I had last night."
Scott's frown deepened, became almost formidable, then suddenly vanished in a laugh. "That's just your point of view," he said. "Perhaps it's a pity to open your eyes. But whatever you do, don't try to humour my brother's whims! It would be very bad for him, and you certainly wouldn't gain anything by it. Put up with me for a change, and come to tea instead!"
A flash of gaiety gleamed for a moment in Dinah's eyes. It was the first he had seen that morning. "I'll come," she said, "if Lady Grace will let me. But I think I had better ask first, don't you?"