She laughed, showing a row of small white teeth.  “Oh, you’d love it once you started.  It’s a heavenly sport if the run isn’t bumpy.  Isn’t this a glorious atmosphere?  It makes one feel so happy.”

She came and stood by his side to watch the skaters.  Billy was seated on the bank, impatiently changing his boots.

“I’m not going to wait for you any longer, Dinah,” he said.  “I’m fed up.”

“Don’t then!” she retorted.  “I never asked you to.”

“What a lie!” said Billy, with all a brother’s gallantry.

She threw him a sister’s look of scorn and deigned no rejoinder.  But in a moment the incident was forgotten.  “Oh, look there!” she suddenly exclaimed.  “Isn’t that just like Rose de Vigne?  She’s always sure to appropriate the most handsome man within sight.  I’ve been watching that man from my window.  He is a perfect Apollo, and skates divinely.  And now she’s got him!”

Deep disgust was audible in her voice.  Billy looked up with a sideways grin.  “You don’t suppose he’d look at a sparrow like you, do you?” he said.  “He prefers a swan, you bet.”

“Be quiet, Billy!” commanded Dinah, making an ineffectual dig at him with her foot.  “I don’t want him to look at me.  I hate men.  But it is too bad the way Rose always chooses the best.  It’s just the same with everything.  And I long—­oh, I do long sometimes—­to cut her out!”

“I should myself,” said Scott unexpectedly.  “But why don’t you.  I’m sure you could.”

She threw him a whimsical smile.  “I!” she said.  “Why that’s about as likely as—­” she stopped short in some confusion.

He laughed a little.  “You mean I might as soon hope to cut out Apollo?  But the cases are not parallel, I assure you.  Besides, Apollo happens to be my brother, which makes a difference.”

“Oh, is he your brother?  What a good thing you told me!” laughed Dinah.  “I might have said something rude about him in a minute.”

“Like me!” said Billy, stumbling to his feet.  “I made a most horrific blunder, didn’t I, Mr. Studley?  I called him a bounder!”

Dinah looked at him witheringly.  “You would!” she said.  “Well, I hope you apologized.”

Billy stuck out his tongue at her.  “I didn’t then!” he returned, and skated elegantly away on one leg.

“Billy,” remarked Dinah dispassionately, “is not really such a horrid little beast as he seems.”

Scott smiled his courteous smile.  “I had already gathered that,” he said.

Her green eyes darted him a swift look, as if to ascertain if he were in earnest.  Then:  “That was very nice of you,” she said.  “I wonder how you knew.”

He still smiled, but without much mirth.  “A looker-on sees a good many things, you know,” he said.

Dinah’s eyes flashed understanding.  She said no more.

CHAPTER III

THE SEARCH