s
that," she said with decision.

He smiled a little. "Thank you, _miladi_. Then wasn't it--almost equally
silly--your word, not mine!--of you to be afraid of me last night?"

She felt the thrust in a moment, and went white, conscious of the weak
sick feeling that so often came over her at the sound of her mother's
step when she was in disgrace.

He saw her distress, but he allowed several moments to elapse before he
came to the rescue; Then lightly, "Pray don't let the matter disturb
you!" he said. "Only--for your peace of mind--let me tell you that you
really have nothing to fear. Out here we live in fairyland, and no one
is in earnest. We just enjoy ourselves, and Mrs. Grundy simply doesn't
exist. We are not ashamed of being frivolous, and we do whatever we like.
And there are no consequences. Always remember that, Miss Bathurst! There
are never any consequences in fairyland."

His eyes suddenly laughed at her, and Dinah was vastly reassured. Her
dismay vanished, leaving a blithe sense of irresponsibility in its place.

"I shall remember that," she said, with her gay little nod. "I dreamt
last night that we were in Olympus."

"We?" he said softly.

She nodded again, flushed and laughing, confident that she had received
her cue. "And you--were Apollo."

She saw his eyes change magically, flashing into swift life, and dropped
her own before the mastery that dawned there.

"And you," he questioned under his breath, "were Daphne?"

"Perhaps," she said enigmatically. After all, flirting was not such a
difficult art, and since he had declared that there could be no
consequences, she did not see why she should bury this new-found talent
of hers.

"What a charming dream!" he commented lazily. "But you know what happened
to Daphne when she ran away, don't you?"

She flung him a laughing challenge. "He didn't catch her anyway."

"True!" smiled Sir Eustace. "But have you never wondered whether it
wouldn't have been more sport for her if he had? It wouldn't be very
exciting, you know, to lead the life of a vegetable."

"It isn't!" declared Dinah, with abrupt sincerity.

"Oh, you know something about it, do you?" he said. "Then the modern
Daphne ought to have too much sense to run away."

She laughed with a touch of wistfulness. "I wonder how she felt about it
afterwards."

"I wonder," he agreed, tipping the ash off his cigarette. "It didn't
matter so much to Apollo, you see. He had plenty to choose from."