How do you like it,
Isabel?"
Abruptly the elder brother accosted her. She was walking between them as
one in a dream. She started at the sound of her name.
"I don't know yet," she said. "It is rather cold, isn't it? I--I am not
sure that I shall be able to sleep here."
Eustace's eyes held hers for a moment. "Oh, no one expects to sleep
here," he said lightly. "You skate all day and dance all night. That's
the programme."
Her lips parted a little. "I--dance!" she said.
"Why not?" said Eustace.
She made a gesture that was almost expressive of horror. "When I dance,"
she said, in her deep voice, "you may put me under lock and key for good
and all, for I shall be mad indeed."
"Don't be silly!" he said sharply.
She shrank as if at a blow, and on the instant very quietly Scott
intervened. "Isabel and I prefer to look on," he said, drawing her hand
gently through his arm. "I fancy it suits us both best."
His eyes met his brother's quick frown deliberately, with the utmost
steadiness, and for a few electric seconds there was undoubted tension
between them. Isabel was aware of it, and gripped the supporting arm very
closely.
Then with a shrug Eustace turned from the contest. "Oh, go your own way!
It's all one to me. You're one of the slow coaches that never get
anywhere."
Scott said nothing whatever. He smoked his cigarette without a sign of
perturbation.
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