," he said, with smiling assurance. "And
now how many may I have? All the waltzes?"

Dinah's laugh rang so gaily that several heads were turned in her
direction, and she smothered it in alarm.

"I can only give you one," she said, with a great effort at sobriety.

"What? Oh, nonsense!" he protested, his blue eyes dominating hers. "You
couldn't be so shabby as that!"

Dinah's chin pointed merrily upwards. The situation had its humour. It
was certainly rather amusing to elude him. She knew he had caught her far
too easily the night before.

"It's all I have to offer," she declared.

"Meaning you're not going to dance more than one dance?" he asked.

She opened her laughing eyes wide. "Why should it mean that? You're not
the only man in the room, are you?"

Sir Eustace's jaw set itself suddenly after a fashion that made him
look formidable, albeit he laughed back at her with his eyes. "All
right--Daphne," he murmured. "I'll have the first."

Dinah's heart gave a little throb of apprehension, but she quieted it
impatiently. What had she to fear? She nodded and lightly turned away.

All through dinner she alternately dreaded and longed for the moment of
his coming to claim that dance from her. That haughty confidence of his
had struck a curious chord in her soul, and the suspense was almost
unbearable.

She noticed that Rose was very serene and smiling, and she regarded her
complacency with growing resentment. Rose could dance as often as she
liked with him, and no one would find fault. Rose had had him all to
herself throughout the afternoon moreover. She knew very well that had
the ski-ing lesson been offered to her, she would not have been allowed
to avail herself of it.

A wicked little spirit awoke within her. Why should she always be kept
thus in the background? Surely her right to the joys of life was as great
as--if not greater than--Rose's! With her it would all end so soon, while
Rose had the whole of her youth before her like a pleasant garden in
which she might wander or rest at will.

Dinah began to feel feverish. It seemed so imperative that she should
miss nothing good during this brief, brief time of happiness vouchsafed
her by the gods.

Her frame of mind when she entered the ballroom was curious. Mutiny and
doubt, longing and dread, warred strangely together. But the moment he
came to her, the moment she felt his arm about her, rapture came and
drove out all beside. She drank again of the w