He laughed.  “No, I can’t do that.  We must keep that for Eustace.  But I will take you to the Dower House, and show you that.”

“I shall love that,” said Dinah.

He took her into a room that overlooked terrace and river-valley and the sunny southern slope that lay between.

Breakfast was laid for two, and a cheery fire was burning.  “How cosy it looks!” said Dinah.

“It does, doesn’t it?” said Scott.  “We always breakfast here in the winter for that reason.  Not that it is winter to-day.  It is glorious spring.  You seem to have brought it with you.  Take the coffee-pot end, won’t you?  What will you have to eat?”

He spoke with a lightness that Dinah found peculiarly exhilarating.  He was evidently determined that she should not be dull.  Her spirits rose.  She suddenly felt like a child who has been granted an unexpected holiday.

She smiled up at him as he brought her a plate.  “Isn’t it a perfect morning?  I’m so glad to be here.  Don’t let us waste a single minute; will we?”

“Not one,” said Scott.

He went to his own place.  He was plainly in a holiday mood also.  She saw it in his whole bearing, and her heart rejoiced.  It was so good to see him looking happy.

“Have you seen Isabel this morning?” he asked her presently.

“No.  I went to her door, but Biddy said she was asleep, so I didn’t go in.”

“She often doesn’t sleep much before morning,” Scott said.  “I expect she will be down to luncheon if you can put up with me only till then.”

He evidently did not want to discuss Isabel’s health just then, and Dinah was quite willing also to let the subject pass for the time.  It was a morning for happy thoughts only.  She and Scott would pretend that they had not a care in the world.

They breakfasted together as if it were a picnic.  She had never seen him so cheery and inconsequent.  It was as if he also were engaged in some species of make-believe.  Or was it the enchantment of spring that had fallen upon them both?  Dinah could not have said.  She only knew that she had never felt so happy in all her life before.

The walk to the Dower House was full of delight.  It was all so exquisite, the long, grassy slopes, the dark woods, the bare trees stark against the blue.  The path led through a birch copse, and here in sheltered corners were primroses.  She gathered them eagerly, and Scott helped her, even forgetting to smoke.

She did not remember later what they talked about, or even if they talked at all.  But the amazing gladness of her heart on that spring morning was to be a vivid memory to her for as long as she lived.

They reached the Dower House.  Like Willowmount, it overlooked the river, but from a different angle.  Dinah was charmed with the old place.  It was full of unexpected corners and old-fashioned contrivances.  Blue patches of violets bloomed in the garden.  Again with Scott’s help, she gathered a great dewy bunch.