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"Why, haven't you seen him yet?" cried the dimpler, in surprise. "I supposed, of course, he would come here first before seeing me. Why, I'm quite proud." "No," returned Rita; "I have not seen him." "He'll come this evening, I'm sure," said Sukey, patronizingly. "I have company to-night. He's looking well, though he was sick for three or four weeks at an inn near Wheeling.
It was his ring that Sukey had seen on Rita's finger, but Dic did not know that. "Some folks envy her," observed the dimpler, staring in revery at the fire.
After rambling over the keys for two or three minutes, he turned savagely upon Dic, saying: "I wish you would tell me why you come to me for advice. You don't take it." "Yes, I do, Billy Little. I value your advice above every one else's." "Stuff and nonsense. I warned you against that girl the dimpler: much you heeded me. Do you think I'm a free advice factory?
She will cry, and a woman's tears hurt the right sort of man. But bless my soul, Dic, why don't you settle your own affairs? I'm tired of it all. It's getting to trouble me as much as it troubles you." Billy paused, gazing into the fire, and dropped into a half-revery. "I can see the poor little dimpler weeping and grieving. I can hear her sobs and feel her heartaches.
Even if the story be nothing but a fable, as some men claim, the thought is a glorious one, and the fate ah, the fate but such a fate is only for God. If I can't help the suffering of the world, I wish I might live in the midst of Sahara, where I could not hear of human pain. It hurts me, Dic. Indeed it does. And this poor little dimpler I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
Immediately two pairs of merry eyes looked up at him, and two red mouths smiled, and showed rows of pearly teeth. "There!" said Polly, "he ALMOST laughed, and that dimple in his chin looked DIMPLER than before." "That's what I told you," said Rose, "and sometimes, when I'm lonesome, he's a comfort."
Every word that Sukey had ever spoken concerning Dic, every meeting of which she knew that had ever taken place between him and the dimpler, in fact, all the trivial events that had happened between her lover and the girl who was trying to steal him from her, including the occurrence at Scott's social, came vividly back to Rita at that moment with exaggerated meaning, and told her she had for years been a poor, trusting dupe.
Don't spare the dimpler, and don't spare yourself." Thereupon Dic unfolded his story with a naked truthfulness that made him blush. "I thought as much," remarked Billy, when the story was finished. "Miss Potiphar from Egypt has brought you and herself into trouble." "No, no, Billy Little, you are wrong. I cannot escape blame by placing the fault upon her.
"She certainly would be ideal," responded Billy. "But I hope you will get the girl. She's worth all the trouble the old lady can make." "Why do you say 'hope'?" asked Dic. "I'm sure of getting her. Why, Billy Little, if I were to lose that girl, I believe I should go mad." "No, you wouldn't," returned his friend. "You would console yourself with the dimpler."
"Ah, Billy Little, think of my sorrow," said Dic. "It's a question whether we should shrink from our troubles or face them," continued Little; "but in your case I should choose the shrinking, and write to the poor, pathetic little dimpler. Poor thing! Her days of dimpling are over.
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