Part 73 (1/2)

The latter spied her at once and accosted her in his cracked, cheerful voice. ”Hi, Dinah! Come down! We're going to tea at the Court. Scott will walk with you, and I'm going to ride his gee.”

He rolled off Rupert with the words. Scott looked up at her, faintly smiling as he lifted his hat. ”I hope that plan will suit you,” he said.

”The fact is the padre has been detained and can't get here before tea-time. So we thought--Eustace thought--you wouldn't mind coming up to the Court to tea instead of waiting to see him here.”

It crossed her mind to wonder why Eustace had not come himself to fetch her, but she was conscious of a deep, unreasoning thankfulness that he had not. Then, before she could reply, she heard her father's voice in the porch, inviting Scott to enter.

Scott accepted the invitation, and Dinah turned back into the room to prepare for the walk.

Her hands were trembling so much that they could scarcely serve her. She was in a state of violent and uncontrollable agitation, longing one moment to be gone, and the next desiring desperately to remain where she was. The thought of facing the crowd at the Court filled her with a positive tumult of apprehension, but breathlessly she kept telling herself that Scott would be there--Scott would be there. His sheltering presence would be her protection.

And then, still trembling, still unnerved, she descended to meet him.

He was with her father in the drawing-room. The place was littered with wedding-presents.

As she entered, he came towards her, and in a moment his quiet hand closed upon hers. Her father went out in search of her mother and they were alone.

”What a collection of beautiful things you have here!” he said.

She looked at him, met his steady eyes, and suddenly some force of speech broke loose within her; she uttered words wild and pa.s.sionate, such as she had never till that moment dreamed of uttering.

”Oh, don't talk of them! Don't think of them! They suffocate me!”

She saw his face change, but she could not have a.n.a.lysed the expression it took. He was silent for a moment, and in that moment his fingers tightened hard and close upon her hand.

Then, ”I have brought you a small offering on my own account,” he said in his courteous, rather tired voice. ”May I present it? Or would you rather I waited a little?”

She felt the tears welling up, swiftly, swiftly, and clasped her throat to stay them. ”Of course I would like it,” she murmured almost inarticulately. ”That--that is different.”

He took a small, white packet from his pocket and put it into the hand he had been holding, without a word.

Dumbly, with quivering fingers, she opened it. There was something of tragedy in the silence, something of despair.

The paper fluttered to the ground, leaving a leather case in her grasp.

She glanced up at him.

”Won't you look inside?” he said gently.

She did so, in her eyes those burning tears she could not check. And there, gleaming on its bed of white velvet, she saw a wonderful jewel--a great star-shaped sapphire, deep as the heart of a fathomless pool, edged with diamonds that flashed like the sun upon the ripples of its sh.o.r.es.

She gazed and gazed in silence. It was the loveliest thing she had ever seen.

Scott was watching her, his eyes very still, unchangeably steadfast. ”The sapphire for friends.h.i.+p,” he said.

She started as one awaking from a dream. In the pa.s.sage outside the half-open door she heard the sound of her mother's voice approaching.

With a swift movement she closed the case and hid it in her dress.

”I can't show it to anyone yet,” she said hurriedly.