Brothers -- Fiction; Love stories; Triangles (Interpersonal relations) -- Fiction
"I have just done," she said, finding her voice. "Biddy and I have got
through such a lot. Oh, Scott," as the light fell upon his face, "how
tired you look!"
"It has been rather a tiring day," he made answer. "I didn't think I
could get over here to-night; but Eustace insisted."
"How good of him!" she said, with quick gratitude.
"Yes, he is good," Scott's voice was tender. "I couldn't sleep last
night, and he came into my room, and we had a long talk. He is one of the
best, Dinah; one of the best. I'm afraid you've made--rather a poor
exchange."
Something in his tone banished the last of Dinah's shyness. She gave him
her basket of china and prepared to descend. He stretched up a courteous
hand to help her, but she would have none of it. "You are never to say
that--or anything like it--again," she said severely. "If--if you weren't
so dreadfully tired, I believe I'd be really angry. As it is--" she
reached the ground and stood there before him, a small, purposeful figure
clad in the great apron that wrapped about her like a garment.
"As it is--" he suggested meekly, setting the basket on a chair and
turning back to face her.
Two quivering hands came out to him in the gloaming, and fastened
resolutely on his coat. "Oh, Greatheart," whispered a tremulous voice, "I
love you so much--so much--I want--to kiss you!"
"My darling," answered Greatheart softly, "you can't want it--more than I
do."
His arms closed about her; he drew her to his breast.
* * * * *
"Arrah thin, what would I cry for at all?" said Biddy, as she lay
down that night. "I've got herself and Master Scott to care for, and
maybe--some day--the Almighty will remember old Biddy for good, and give
another little one into her care."
* * * * *
"And you left them quite happy?" smiled Rose to her lover two days later.
"It's a very suitable arrangement, isn't it? I always used to think that
Dinah and your brother should make a match."
"Oh, quite suitable," agreed Eustace lazily, an odd blend of irony and
satisfaction in his tone. "They will be happy enough. Stumpy, you know,
is just the sort of chivalrous ass that a child like Dinah can
appreciate. They'll probably live in the seventh heaven, and fancy that
no one else has ever been within a million miles of it."
"Poor little Dinah!" murmured Rose. "She will never know what she has
missed."
And, "Just as well perhaps," said Sir Eustace, with his faintly cynical
smile.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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