She drew herself from his hold.  “I feel it does matter,” she said, her voice pathetically small and shy.  “But—­I know you didn’t mean to—­to offend me.  So let’s forget it, please!  Let’s go back!”

She gave him her hand with a timid gesture, and he took it with a smile that held arrogance as well as amusement.  “We will go back certainly,” he said.  “But we shall not forget.  We have tasted the wine of the gods, my Daphne, and there is magic in the draught.  Those who drink once are bound to come again for more.”

“Oh no!  Oh no!” said Dinah.

But even as she said it, she felt herself to be battling against destiny.

In that moment she knew beyond all doubting that by some means of which she had no understanding he had caught her will and made it captive.  Elude him though she might for a time, she was bound to be his helpless prisoner at the last.

Yet his magnetism was such that she yielded herself to him almost mechanically as they went back into the giddy vortex of the carnival.  Even in the midst of her dismay and uncertainty, she was strangely, almost deliriously happy.

Romance with gold-tipped wings unfurled had suddenly descended from the high heavens and flitted before her, luring her on.

CHAPTER XIII

FRIENDSHIP IN THE DESERT

On the edge of the rink immediately below the hotel, a slight figure was standing, patient as the Sphinx, awaiting them.

Sir Eustace’s keen eyes lighted upon it from afar.  “There is my brother,” he said.  “We will go and speak to him if you have no objection.”

Dinah received the suggestion with eagerness.  She was possessed for the moment by an urgent desire to get back to the commonplace.  She had been whirled off her feet, and albeit the flight had held rapture, she had a desperate longing to tread solid ground once more.

Possibly her companion shared something of this feeling.  The game was his, but there was no more to be won from her that night.  The time had come to descend from the heights to the dull and banal levels.  He divined her wish to return to earth, and he had no reason for thwarting it.  With a careless laugh he put on speed and rushed her dizzily through the throng.

To Dinah it was as a rapid fall through space.  She felt as if she had been suddenly shot from the gates of Olympus.  She reached Scott, flushed and breathless and quivering still with the wonder of it.

He greeted her courteously.  “Are you having a good time, Miss Bathurst?”

She answered him gaspingly.  Somehow it was an immense relief to find herself by his side.  “Yes; a glorious time.  But I am coming off now.  Have you—­have you seen anything of Lady Grace or the Colonel?”

“I have just had the pleasure of making Lady Grace’s acquaintance,” he said.  “Are you really coming off now?  Have you had enough?”