CHAPTER VI CINDERELLA "Come and sit down!" said Scott. Dinah gave a little start. She was standing close to him, but she had not seen him. She looked at him for a second with far-away eyes, as if she did not know him. Then recognition flashed into them. She smiled an eager greeting. "Oh, Mr. Studley, I want to thank you for the very happiest evening of my life." He smiled also as he sat down beside her. "You are enjoying yourself?" "Oh yes, indeed I am!" she assured him. "Thank you a hundred million times!" "Why thank me?" questioned Scott. She drew a long, long breath. "Because you were the magician who pulled the strings. I should never have got dressed in the first place but for you." He gave a laugh of amused protest. "Oh, surely! I don't feel I deserve that!" She laughed with him. "You did it anyhow. And in the second place you got me out of a villainous bad temper and turned an ugly goblin into a very happy butterfly. I'm downright ashamed of myself for being so horrid about Rose de Vigne. She isn't at all a bad sort though she is so impossibly beautiful. Your brother is going to dance with her now. See! There they go!" She looked after them with a smile of complete content. "You're feeling generous," remarked Scott. She turned to him again, flushed and radiant. "I can afford to--though it's for the first time in my life. I've never had such a happy time,--never, never, never! Isn't your brother wonderful? His dancing is--" Words failed her. She raised her hands and let them fall with a gesture expressive of unbounded admiration. "You mustn't let him monopolize you," said Scott. "He has plenty to choose from, you know. Others haven't." She laughed. "He says--I wonder if it's true!--he says I am the best dancer he has ever met!" Scott smiled at her beaming face. "That is very nice--for him," he observed. "I thought you seemed to be getting on very well." Her eyes travelled across the room again to her late partner and the beautiful Miss de Vigne. She watched them intently for a few seconds. "Poor Rose!" she said suddenly. Scott was watching her. "Isn't she a good dancer?" he asked. She turned back to him. "Oh yes, I believe she is. She always has plenty of partners anyway. At least I've always heard so. Is your sister dancing? I don't think I can have seen her yet." "No. She is in her sitting-room upstairs. I wanted her to come down, but she wouldn't be persuaded. She--" Scott hesitated a moment--"is not fond of gaiety." "Then I shan't see her!" said Dinah in tones of genuine disappointment. "I did so want to thank her for lending me these lovely things." "I can take you to her if you'll come," said Scott. "Oh, can you? Yes, I'll come. I can come now. But are you sure she will like it?" Dinah's bright eyes met his with frank directness. "I don't want to intrude on her, you know," she said.