"Do not," she pleaded gently. "There is no reason, really. It is but Mr. Kingston's whim." "And are you determined to sacrifice me to Mr. Kingston's whim?" She did not speak, and he repeated his query in a more imperious fashion. "Are you really going to throw me over altogether, Miss Fetherstonhaugh? I only want to know." She looked up at him piteously, and he softened at once. "Tell me what I am to do," he said, in a low voice. "_Do_ you wish me not to ask you for any dances? It is a horrible thing--it is enough to make me wish I had gone to Queensland on Monday, after all--but I will not bother you. Tell me, am I not to ask you at all?" "If you please," she whispered with a quick sigh, full of despairing resignation. "I am very sorry, but it is right to do what Mr. Kingston wishes." "That is not my view in this case. However, it is right for _me_ to do what _you_ wish. And I will, though it is very hard." Here Rachel, feeling all her body like one great beating heart, moved away to the door, driven by a stern sense of social duty. Her companion did not follow her, and she paused on the threshold, turned round, and then suddenly hurried back to him. "Mr. Dalrymple," she said, putting out her hand with an impulsive gesture, "do not wish you had gone to Queensland instead of coming here to-night. If you do I shall be _miserable_!" He seized her hand immediately, and stooping his tall head at the same moment, brushed it with his moustache. Then, looking up into her scared face, he said--like a man binding himself by some terrible oath: "_That_ I never will." Once before in that room they had touched the point where not only mere acquaintance but warmest friendship ends. Then it had been to her a new, incomprehensible experience; now she could not help seeing the reason and the meaning of it, though, perhaps, not so clearly as he. In a moment she had drawn her hand away, and like a bird frightened from its nest, had vanished out of his sight, leaving him--thoroughly aroused from his normal impassiveness--gazing at the empty doorway behind her. When they met again, ten minutes afterwards, it was in the drawing-room, which was crowded with people; and through all the crush and noise, she was as acutely conscious of his presence as if he alone had been there. She moved about with tremulous restlessness and downcast eyes; afraid to look at him--afraid he should look at her; paying her little civilities mechanically, and conducting herself generally, to her aunt's extreme annoyance, more like a bashful schoolgirl and a poor relation than ever.