That episode had faded almost into nothingness. But the
ordeal of facing him, of telling him of the wonderful thing that had just
happened to her, seemed suddenly more than she could bear. Something
within her seemed to cry out against it. She had a curious feeling of
looking out at him across great billows of seething uncertainty that
rolled ever higher and higher between them, threatening to separate them
for all time.
Yet when she neared him, the tumult of feeling sank again as the
quietness of his presence reached her. Out of the tempest she found
herself drifting into a safe harbour of still waters.
He moved to meet them, and she heard his voice greet her as he raised his
cap. "So you have been for your farewell stroll!"
She did not answer in words, only she freed her hand from Eustace with a
resolute little tug and gave it to him.
Eustace spoke, a species of half-veiled insolence in his tone. "Like the
psalmist she went forth weeping and has returned bearing her sheaf with
her--in the form of a fairly substantial _fiance_."
Dinah ventured to cast a lightning-glance at Scott to see how he took the
information and was conscious of an instant's shock. He looked so grey,
so ill, like a man who had received a deadly wound.
But the impression passed in a flash as she felt his hand close upon
hers.
"My dear," he said simply, "I'm awfully pleased.
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