embarrassed. She shrank from pursuing the matter further.

Yet for a long time that night she lay awake pondering, wondering.
Certainly Scott was different from all other men, totally, undeniably
different. He seemed to dwell on a different plane. She could not grasp
what it was about him that set him thus apart. But what Isabel had said
showed her very clearly that the spirit that dwelt behind that unimposing
exterior was a force that counted, and could hold its own against odds.

She slept at last with the thought of him still present in her mind. And
in her dreams the vision of Greatheart in his shining armour came to her
again, filling her with a happiness which even sleeping she did not dare
to analyse, scarcely to contemplate.




CHAPTER XXVI

THE CALL OF APOLLO


Dinah's strength came back to her in leaps and bounds, and three weeks
after the de Vignes's departure she was almost herself again. The season
was drawing to a close. The holidays were over, and English people were
turning homeward. Very reluctantly Isabel had to admit that her charge
was well enough for the journey back. Mrs. Bathurst wrote in an insistent
strain, urging that the time had come for her to return, and no further
excuse could be invented for keeping her longer.