"
His lips pressed hers again, but she withdrew herself with a sharp
effort. There was nameless terror in her heart.
"Oh, I can't, Eustace! I can't indeed!" she said, and now she was
striving, striving impotently, for freedom. "I'm going up to town with
Isabel."
"Isabel can wait," he said.
"No! No! I must go. You don't understand. There are no end of things to
be done." Dinah was as one encircled by fire, searching wildly round for
a means of escape. "I must go!" she said again. "I must go!"
"You can go the next day," he said with arrogance. "I want you to-morrow
and I mean to have you. Look at me, Dinah!"
She glanced at him, compelled by the command of his tone, met the fiery
intensity of his look, and sank helpless, conquered.
He kissed her again. "There! That's settled. You silly little thing! Why
do you always beat your wings against the inevitable? Do you think you
are going to get away from me now?"
She hid her face against his shoulder. She was almost in tears. "You--you
hurt me! You frighten me!" she whispered.
"Do I?" he said, and still in his voice she heard that deep note that
made her whole being quiver. "It's your own fault, my Daphne. You
shouldn't run away."
"I--I can't help it," she said tremulously. "I sometimes think--I'm
not big enough for you."
"You'll grow," he said.
"I don't know," she answered in distress.
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