Dinah laughed. She had an exhilarating sense of having achieved a conquest undreamed of. She also was feeling a little giddy, a little uncertain of the ground under her feet.
"Do you know," she said, dropping her eyes instinctively before the fiery intensity of his, "I've never danced with a man before? I—I was a little afraid just at first lest you should find me—gawky."
"Ye gods!" said Sir Eustace. "And you have really never danced with a man before! Tell me! How did you like it?"
"It was—heavenly!" said Dinah, drawing a deep breath.
"Will you dance with me again?" he asked.
She nodded. "Yes."
"The very next dance?"
She nodded again. "Yes."
"And again after that?" said Sir Eustace.
She threw him a glance half-shy, half-daring. "Don't you think it might be too much for you?"
He laughed. "I'll risk it if you will."
She turned towards him with a small, confidential gesture. "What about
Rose de Vigne?" she said. "Don't you want to dance with her?"
"Oh, presently," he said. "She'll keep."
Dinah broke into her high, sweet laugh. "And what about—all my other partners?" she said, with more assurance.
He bent to her. "They must keep too. Seriously, you don't want to dance with any other fellow, do you?"
"I'm not a bit serious," said Dinah.
"Do you?" he insisted.
She lifted her eyes momentarily.
"You don't?" he insinuated.
She surrendered without conditions. "Of course I don't."
"Then you mustn't," he said. "Consider yourself booked to me for to-night, and when you're not dancing with me, you can rest. Sit out with Scott if you like! Will you do that?"
"Why?" whispered Dinah.
Again her heart was beating very fast; she wondered why.
He answered her with an impetuosity that seemed to carry her along with it. "Because your dancing is superb, magnificent, and I want to keep it for myself. It may not be the same when you've danced with another man. A flower fresh plucked is always sweeter than one that someone else has worn."
Dinah's hands clasped each other unconsciously. She had never dreamed that Apollo could so stoop to favour her.
"I will do as you like," she murmured after a moment. "But I don't suppose for an instant that anyone else would want to dance with me. I don't know anyone else."
He smiled. "I'm glad of that. It would be sheer sacrilege for you to dance with a young oaf who didn't know how. It's a bargain then. I'll give you all I can. You mustn't tell, of course."
"Oh, I won't tell," laughed Dinah.
He gave her his arm. "They are tuning up. We won't lose a minute. I always like a clear floor, before the rabble begin."
He led her to the top of the room, stood for a moment; then, as the music began, caught her to him, and they floated once more into the shining, enchanted mazes of their dreamland.
And Dinah danced as one inspired, for it seemed to her that her feet moved upon air as though winged. Apollo had drawn her up to Olympus, and she drifted in his arm in spheres unknown, far above the clouds.
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.
He smiled a little. "I am sure you won't intrude. Shall we go then? Are you sure there is no one else you want to dance with here?"
"Oh, quite sure." Again momentarily Dinah's look sought her late partner; then briskly she stood up.
Scott rose also, and gave her his arm. She bestowed a small, friendly squeeze upon it. "I've never enjoyed myself so much before," she said. "And it's all your doing."
"Oh, not really!" he said.
She nodded vigorously. "But it is! I should never have been presentable but for you. And I should certainly never have danced with your brother. He has actually promised to help me with my skating to-morrow. Isn't it kind