She looked at him for a moment ere she turned to re-enter the room in which Dinah lay.  “Not just yet,” she answered softly.  “Good night, dear!  Good night!”

The strange light was still upon her face as she went, and Scott looked after her with a faint, wistful smile about his mouth.  As he went to his own room, he passed his hand across his forehead with a gesture of unutterable weariness.

CHAPTER XXV

THE TRUE GOLD

The actual turning-point in Dinah’s illness seemed to date from that brief interview with Sir Eustace.  They had drawn her back half against her will from the land of shadows, but from that day her will was set to recover.  The old elasticity came back to her, and with every hour her strength increased.  The joy of life was hers once more.  She was like a flower opening to the sun.

Sir Eustace presented himself every evening for admittance and sat with her for a little while.  Isabel was generally present, and their conversation was in consequence of a strictly commonplace order; but the 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 in his deep voice of the day’s sport.

“There are several new people arrived,” he said, “both ancient and modern.  The place was getting empty, but it has filled up again.  There is to be a dance to-night,” his eyes sought Dinah’s.  “I am going down presently to see if any of the new-comers have any talents worth cultivating.”