“Can’t she?  You’ll have to give her a hint or two.  I am sure she would be very grateful.”

“Did she tell you so?”

“I’m not going to tell you what she told me.  It wouldn’t be fair.”

Eustace laughed with easy tolerance.  “Oh, I’ve no objection to giving her a hand now and then if she’s amusing, and doesn’t become a nuisance.  I’m not going to let myself be bored by anybody this trip.  I’m out for sport only.”

“It’s a lovely place,” observed Scott.

“Oh, perfect.  I’m going to ski this afternoon.  How do you like it, Isabel?”

Abruptly the elder brother accosted her.  She was walking between them as one in a dream.  She started at the sound of her name.

“I don’t know yet,” she said.  “It is rather cold, isn’t it?  I—­I am not sure that I shall be able to sleep here.”

Eustace’s eyes held hers for a moment.  “Oh, no one expects to sleep here,” he said lightly.  “You skate all day and dance all night.  That’s the programme.”

Her lips parted a little.  “I—­dance!” she said.

“Why not?” said Eustace.

She made a gesture that was almost expressive of horror.  “When I dance,” she said, in her deep voice, “you may put me under lock and key for good and all, for I shall be mad indeed.”

“Don’t be silly!” he said sharply.

She shrank as if at a blow, and on the instant very quietly Scott intervened.  “Isabel and I prefer to look on,” he said, drawing her hand gently through his arm.  “I fancy it suits us both best.”

His eyes met his brother’s quick frown deliberately, with the utmost steadiness, and for a few electric seconds there was undoubted tension between them.  Isabel was aware of it, and gripped the supporting arm very closely.

Then with a shrug Eustace turned from the contest.  “Oh, go your own way!  It’s all one to me.  You’re one of the slow coaches that never get anywhere.”

Scott said nothing whatever.  He smoked his cigarette without a sign of perturbation.  Save for a certain steeliness in his pale eyes, his habitually placid expression remained unaltered.

He walked in silence for a few moments, then without effort began to talk in a general strain of their journey of the previous day.  Had Isabel cared about the sleigh-ride?  If so, they would go again one day.

She lighted up in response with an animation which she had not displayed during the whole walk.  Her eyes shone a little, as with a far-off fire of gratitude.

“I should like it if you would, Stumpy,” she said.

“Then we will certainly go,” he said.  “I should enjoy it very much.”

Eustace came out of a somewhat sullen silence to throw a glance of half-reluctant approval towards his brother.  He plainly regarded Scott’s move as an achievement of some importance.

“Yes, go by all means!” he said.  “Enjoy yourselves.  That’s all I ask.”