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.
