"How original of him! This Scott
seems to be quite a wonderful person. And what was your pet name for him
I wonder, eh, sly-boots?"
She laughed in evident embarrassment. There was something implied in her
father's tone that made her curiously reluctant to discuss her hero. And
yet, in justification of the man himself, she felt she must say
something.
"His brother and sister call him--Stumpy," she said, "because he is
little and he limps. But I--" her face was as red as the hunting-coat
against which it nestled--"I called him--Mr. Greatheart. He is--just like
that."
Mr. Bathurst laughed again, tweaking her ear. "Altogether an
extraordinary family!" he commented. "I must meet this Mr. Stumpy
Greatheart. Now suppose you run upstairs and turn on the hot water. And
when you've done that, you can take my boots down to the kitchen to dry.
And mind you don't fall foul of your mother, for she strikes me as being
a bit on the ramp tonight!"
He kissed her again, and she clung to him very fast for a moment or two,
tasting in that casual, kindly embrace all the home joy she had ever
known.
Then, hearing her mother's step, she swiftly and guiltily disengaged
herself and fled up the stairs like a startled bird. As she prepared his
bath for him, the wayward thought came to her that if only he and she
had lived alone together, she would never have wanted to get married at
all--even for the delight of being Lady Studley instead of "poor little
Dinah Bathurst!"
CHAPTER II
WEDDING ARRANGEMENTS
It was certainly not love at first sight that prompted Mrs.
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