Her eyes fluttered and fell before the flaming ardour of his. "I--I don't know," she faltered, in sudden confusion. "I expect so--if I could." His arm slipped round her. "Would you?" he whispered. "Would you?" She gave a little gasp, caught unawares like a butterfly on the wing. All the magic of the night seemed suddenly to be concentrated upon her like fairy batteries. Her first feeling was dismay, followed instantly by the wonder if she could be dreaming. And then, as she felt the drawing of his arm, something vehement, something almost fierce, awoke within her, clamouring wildly for freedom. It was a blind instinct, but she obeyed it without question. She had no choice. "Oh no!" she cried. "Oh no! I couldn't!" and wrested herself from him in a panic. He let her go, and she heard him laugh as she broke away. But she did not wait for more. To linger was unthinkable. Urged by that imperative, inner prompting she turned and fled, not pausing for a moment's thought. The glass door closed behind her. She burst impetuously into the deserted ballroom. And here, on the point of entering the small recess from which she was escaping, she came suddenly face to face with Scott. So headlong was her flight that she actually ran into him. He put out a steadying hand. "I was just coming to look for you," he said in his quiet, composed fashion. She stopped unwillingly. "Oh, were you? How kind! I--I think I ought to go up now. It's getting late, isn't it? Good-night!" He did not seek to detain her. She wondered with a burning sense of shame what he could have thought of her wild rush. But she was too agitated to attempt any excuse, too agitated to check her retreat. Without a backward glance she hastened away like Cinderella overtaken by fate; the spell was broken, the glamour gone. CHAPTER VIII MR. GREATHEART It was a very meek and subdued Dinah who made her appearance in the _salle-à-manger_ on the following morning. She and Billy were generally in the best of spirits, and the room usually rang with their young laughter. But that morning even Billy was decorously quiet, and his sister scarcely spoke or raised her eyes. Colonel de Vigne, white-moustached and martial, sat at the table with them, but neither Lady Grace nor Rose was present. The Colonel's face was stern. He occupied himself with letters with scarcely so much as a glance for the boy and girl on either side of him. There was a letter by Dinah's plate also, but she had not opened it. Her downcast face was very pale. She ate but little, and that little only when urged thereto by Billy, whose appetite was rampant notwithstanding the decorum of his behaviour. Scott, breakfasting with his brother at a table only a few yards distant, observed the trio with unobtrusive interest.