The snow sparkled around them like a thousand gems Dinah’s eyes were burning and smarting with the brightness.  And still that tender waltz-music ran lilting through her brain, drifting as it were through the mist of her unshed tears.

Suddenly he spoke.  They were nearing the pine-wood and quite alone.  “Is there anything the matter?”

She choked down a great lump in her throat before she could speak in answer.  “No,” she murmured then.  “I—­I am just—­rather low about leaving; that’s all.”

“Quite all?” he said.

His tone was so casual, so normal, that it seemed impossible now to think of last night’s happening save as an extravagant dream.  She almost felt for the moment as if she had imagined it all.  And then he spoke again, and she caught a subtle note of tenderness in his voice that brought it all back upon her in an overwhelming rush.

“That’s really all, is it?  You’re not unhappy about anything else?  Scott hasn’t been bullying you?”

She gasped at the question.  “Oh no!  Oh no!  He wouldn’t!  He couldn’t!  I—­haven’t even seen him today.”

He received the information in silence; but in a moment or two he tossed away his cigarette with the air of a man having come to an abrupt resolution.

“And so you’re fretting about going home?” he said.

She nodded mutely.  The matter would not bear discussion.

“Poor little Daphne!” he said.  “It’s been a good game, hasn’t it?”

She nodded again.  “Just like the dreams that never come true,” she managed to say.

“Would you like it to come true?” he asked her unexpectedly.

She glanced up at him with a woeful little smile.  “It’s no good thinking of that, is it?” she said.

“I have an idea we could make it come true between us,” he said.

She shook her head.  That brief glimpse of his intent eyes had sent a sudden and overwhelming wave of shyness through her.  She remembered again the fiery holding of his arms, and was afraid.

He paused in his walk and turned aside to the railing that bounded the side of the track above the steep, pine-covered descent.  “Wish hard enough,” he said, “and all dreams come true!”

Dinah went with him as if compelled.  She leaned against the railing, glad of the support, while he sat down upon it.  His attitude was supremely easy and self-possessed.

“Do you know, Daphne,” he said, “I’ve taken a fancy to that particular dream myself?  Now I’ve caught you, I don’t see myself letting you go again.”

Her heart throbbed at his words.  She bent her head, fixing her eyes upon the rough wood upon which she leaned.

“But it’s no good, is it?” she said, almost below her breath.  “I’ve just got to go.”

He put his hand on her shoulder, and she was conscious afresh of the electricity of his touch.  She shrank a little—­a very little; for she was frightened, albeit curiously aware of a magnetism that drew her irresistibly.