She caught a cluster to her and held it against her cheek for a moment.

Merryon was close behind her.  She seemed to realize his nearness quite suddenly, for she let the flowers go abruptly and flitted on.

He followed her till, at the farther end of the veranda, she turned and faced him.  “Good-night, Billikins,” she said, lightly.

“What about that dancing-lesson?” he said.

She threw up her arms above her head with a curious gesture.  They gleamed transparently white in the starlight.  Her eyes shone like fire-flies.

“I thought you preferred dancing by yourself,” she retorted.

“Why?” he said.

She laughed a soft, provocative laugh, and suddenly, without any warning, the cloak had fallen from her shoulders and she was dancing.  There in the starlight, white-robed and wonderful, she danced as, it seemed to the man’s fascinated senses, no human had ever danced before.  She was like a white flame—­a darting, fiery essence, soundless, all-absorbing, all-entrancing.

He watched her with pent breath, bound by the magic of her, caught, as it were, into the innermost circle of her being, burning in answer to her fire, yet so curiously enthralled as to be scarcely aware of the ever-mounting, ever-spreading heat.  She was like a mocking spirit, a will-o’-the-wisp, luring him, luring him—­whither?

The dance quickened, became a passionate whirl, so that suddenly he seemed to see a bright-winged insect caught in an endless web and battling for freedom.  He almost saw the silvery strands of that web floating like gossamer in the starlight.

And then, with well-nigh miraculous suddenness, the struggle was over and the insect had darted free.  He saw her flash away, and found the veranda empty.

Her cloak lay at his feet.  He stooped with an odd sense of giddiness and picked it up.  A fragrance of roses came to him with the touch of it, and for an instant he caught it up to his face.  The sweetness seemed to intoxicate him.

There came a light, inconsequent laugh; sharply he turned.  She had opened the window of his smoking-den and was standing in the entrance with impudent merriment in her eyes.  There was triumph also in her pose—­a triumph that sent a swirl of hot passion through him.  He flung aside the cloak and strode towards her.

But she was gone on the instant, gone with a tinkle of maddening laughter.  He blundered into the darkness of an empty room.  But he was not the man to suffer defeat tamely.  Momentarily baffled, he paused to light a lamp; then went from room to room of the little bungalow, locking each door that she might not elude him a second time.  His blood was on fire, and he meant to find her.

In the end he came upon her wholly unexpectedly, standing on the veranda amongst the twining roses.  She seemed to be awaiting him, though she made no movement towards him as he approached.