CHAPTER XXVII

THE GOLDEN MAZE


Softly the strains of _Simple Aveu_ floated along the corridor. It came
like fairy music, now near, now far, haunting as a dream, woven through
and through with the gold of Romance.

Someone was coming along the passage with the easy swing of the born
dancer, and pressed against her door-post in the shadows, another born
dancer awaited him with a wildly throbbing heart.

The die was cast, and there was no going back. She heard the deep voice
humming the magic melody as he came. In a moment the superb figure came
into sight, moving with that royal ease of carriage so characteristic and
so wonderful.

He drew near. He spied the small white figure lurking in the dimness.
With a low laugh he opened his arms to her.

And then there came to Dinah, not for the first time, a strange, wholly
indefinable misgiving. It was a warning so insistent that she suddenly
and swiftly drew back, as if she would flee into the room behind her.

But he was too quick for her. He caught her on the threshold. "Oh no,
no!" he laughed. "That's not playing the game." He drew her to him,
holding her two wrists. "Daphne! Daphne!" he said. "Still running away?
Do you call that fair?"