It was he who spoke, in his voice a tinge of restraint.  “I was going to ask if it would bore you to come and see my sister again this evening.  I have obtained Lady Grace’s permission for you to do so.”

She sprang to her feet.  “Of course—­of course I would love to!” she said rather incoherently.  “How could it bore me?  I—­I should like it—­more than anything.”

He smiled faintly, and held out his hand for the boots she had just discarded.  “That is more than kind of you,” he said.  “My sister was afraid you might not want to come.”

“Of course I want to come!” maintained Dinah.  “Oh no, thank you; I couldn’t let you carry my boots.  How clever of you to tackle Lady Grace!  What did she say?”

“Neither she nor the Colonel made any difficulty about it at all,” Scott said.  “I told them my sister was an invalid.  Lady Grace said that I must not keep you after ten, and I promised I wouldn’t.”

His manner was kindly and quizzical, and Dinah’s embarrassment began to pass.  But he discomfited her afresh as they walked across the road by saying, “You have made it up with my brother, I see.”

Dinah’s cheeks burned again.  “Yes,” she said, after a moment.  “We made it up this afternoon.”

“That was very lucky—­for him,” observed Scott rather dryly.

Dinah made a swift leap for the commonplace.  “I hate being cross with people,” she said, “or to have them cross with me; don’t you?”

“I think it is sometimes unavoidable,” said Scott gravely.

“Oh, surely you are never cross!” said Dinah impetuously.  “I can’t imagine it.”

“Wait till you see it!” said Scott, with a smile.

They entered the hotel together.  Dinah was tingling with excitement.  She had managed to escape from her discomfiture, but she still felt that any prolonged intercourse with the man beside her would bring it back.  She was beginning to know Scott as one who would not hesitate to say exactly what he thought, and not for all she possessed in the world would she have had him know what had passed in that far corner of the rink so short a time before.

She chattered inconsequently upon ordinary topics as they ascended the stairs together, but when they reached the door of Isabel’s sitting-room she became suddenly shy again.

“Hadn’t I better run and take off my things?” she whispered.  “I feel so untidy.”

He looked at her.  She was clad in the white woollen cap and coat that she had worn in the day.  Her eyes were alight and sparkling, her brown face flushed.  She looked the very incarnation of youth.

“I think she will like to see you as you are,” said Scott.

He knocked upon the door three times as before, and in a moment opened it.

“Go in, won’t you?” he said, standing back.

Dinah entered.

“Ah!  She has come!” A hollow voice said, and in a moment her shyness was gone.