Soosie-Toosie cast a frightened glance at Mr. Palk and another at her father; but Joe was smiling. "More money--eh? Now that's a great thought, Thomas--a very great thought. Fancy! And why for, Thomas, if I may ask without making a hole in my manners?" "For my dead sister's boy," said Mr. Palk. "There's no money, because his father's out of work and I'm very wishful to lend a hand on his account." "And very creditable to you, Thomas; and how comes it his lawful father's out of work?" It was at this moment, to the joy of Susan, that Dinah knocked at the door. She leapt up and thankfully brought the visitor back with her. Mr. Stockman, too, was pleased. "Company, Thomas," he said. "We'll take this subject up at another time. Don't think I'll forget it. I never forget anything, for though the body's weak, worse luck, the mind is clear. Dinah, I see--and why not? You'll always find friends here, Orphan Dinah." Thomas emptied his glass and disappeared, while Dinah plunged into the first object of her visit. "I'm glad you haven't throwed me over for what I've done," she said. "Far from it," replied Mr. Stockman. "Is Soosie-Toosie the sort that judges, or be I?" "We're only terrible sorry for all parties, Dinah," said Susan; "and we hope it will come smooth again." "So do I," answered the younger; "but not the way you mean, Soosie. For it to come smooth is for John to understand I didn't do a wicked thing, only a mistaken thing. And I had to put the mistaken thing right." She went over old ground and made it clear that none must expect her to go back. "I hope I'll live to see John happily wedded," she said. "And I never shan't be happy, I reckon, till he is." "And what about you?" asked Joe. "What's the truth, Dinah?" She explained that she was not constituted to love. "I'm like Soosie," she said. "Us be the sort that's happier single." But Miss Stockman laughed. "You're a good few years too young to tell like that, Dinah. You wait till all this here storm be blowed over and 'tis calm weather in your mind again. You'm born to be married to the right one. If he don't come along, then, with your experience of making a mistake, you never will be married I dare say; but 'tis any odds he will come along I expect." Dinah, however, shook her head. "A mistake like what I've made be a very shattering thing," she said. "I wouldn't have the nerve to go into it no more. There's a lot of unmarried women wanted to carry on the work of the world nowadays."