Page:Morley roberts--Blue Peter--sea yarns.djvu/204

188 quite proper to speak in that way to a man who didn't know her.

"Oh, please, don't cry," said Ruddle in great distress. "When a lady cries I never know what to do."

"I think I'm almost glad you d-don't," said Susan, and she smiled on him through her tears, and looked very beautiful.

"The 'old man' was right," said Tom Ruddle, "she's as beautiful as a picture, and just the kind I like. I don't think I could have bin' very dotty when I married her, and I wish I remembered something about it. If I say I think she is pretty, I wonder whether she will be mad and think it a liberty. I think I'll try. They mostly like it."

He approached her slowly.

"If I don't know you, what may I call you?" he asked diffidently.

Mrs. Ruddle gave a gasp.

"Don't you know my name? Oh, how very dreadful! I'm Susan, and you used to call me Dilly Duck."

"Did I?" asked Ruddle. "And why did I do that?"

Susan said she didn't know, but supposed that it was because he liked her very much.