" And then as if the words burst from her against her will, "She
thrashed me first with a dog-whip; but dogs have got hair to protect
them, and I--had nothing. She only stopped because--I fainted. She hasn't
finished with me now. When I go back--when I go back--" She broke off.
"But I'm not going," she said, and her voice was flat and hard again.
"Even you can't make me do that. There'll be another express this
afternoon."
Scott knelt down beside her, and took her bowed head on to his shoulder.
"Listen to me, Dinah!" he said. "I am going to help you, and you mustn't
try to prevent me. If you had only allowed me, I would have gone home
again with you yesterday, and this might have been avoided. My dear,
don't draw yourself away from me! Don't you know I am a friend you can
trust?"
The pitiful tenderness of his voice reached her, overwhelming her first
instinctive effort to draw back. She leaned against him with painful,
long-drawn sobs.
He held her closely to him with all a woman's understanding. "Oh, don't
cry any more, child!" he said. "You're worn out with crying."
"I feel--so bad--so bad!" sobbed Dinah.
"Yes, yes. I know. Of course you do. But it's over, it's over. No one
shall hurt you any more."
"You don't--understand," breathed Dinah. "It never will be over--while I
live. I'm hurt inside--inside."
"I know," he said again. "But it will get better presently.
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