keen blue eyes told Dinah more than the proud lips ever uttered. She came
to watch for that look which she could not meet, and though at times it
sent a wild dart of fear through her, yet it filled her also with a
rapture indefinable but unspeakably precious. She felt sure that he had
never turned that look on Rose or any other girl. It was kept exclusively
for her, and its fiery intensity thrilled her soul. It was the sign of a
secret understanding between them which she believed none other
suspected.

It was a somewhat terrible joy, for the man's strength had startled her
more than once, but in moments of dread she reassured herself with the
memory of his reiterated declaration that the magic bond that existed
between them was no bond at all in reality--only a game without
consequences. She would not look forward to the time when that game
should be over. She was not looking forward at all, so sublimely happy
was she in the present. The period of convalescence which to most
patients is the hardest of all to bear was to her a dream of delight.

A week after the departure of the de Vignes she was well enough to be
moved into Isabel's sitting-room, and here on that first day both Sir
Eustace and Scott joined them at tea.

The weather had cleared again, and Sir Eustace came in from an
afternoon's ski-ing attired in the white sweater in which Dinah always
loved to see him. She lay on her couch and watched him with shining eyes,
telling herself that no prince had ever looked more royal.

It was Scott who waited upon her, but she was scarcely aware of his
presence. Even Isabel seemed to have faded into the background. She could
think only of Eustace lounging near her in careless magnificence, talking