less likely that it will last much longer. And I expect it's much worse
in England," she added.

"I wonder," said Sir Eustace. "There's the hunting anyway."

"Oh no; it would freeze directly you got there," she said, with a shaky
little laugh. "And then you would wish you had stayed here."

"I could shoot," said Sir Eustace.

"And there is the Hunt Ball, isn't there?" said Dinah with more
assurance.

He looked at her keenly. "What Hunt Ball?"

She met his eyes with a faint challenge in her own. "I heard you were
going to stay with the de Vignes. They always go to the Hunt Ball every
year."

"Do you go?" asked Sir Eustace.

She shook her head. "No. I never go anywhere."

She saw his eyes soften unexpectedly as he said, "Then there isn't much
inducement for me to go, is there?"

Her heart gave a wild throb of half-incredulous delight. She made a small
movement of one hand towards him, and quite suddenly she found it grasped
in his. He bent to her with a laugh in his eyes.