"Find Sir Eustace Studley if you can, and ask
him to join us there! Come along, Dinah!"
His hand touched her arm. She entered the little room as one seeking
refuge. It led into a conservatory, and thence to the garden. The
apartment itself was given up entirely to weapons or instruments of
sport. Guns, fishing-rods, hunting-stocks, golf-clubs, tennis-rackets,
were stored in various racks and stands. A smell of stale cigar-smoke
pervaded it. Colonel de Vigne was wont to retire hither at night in
preference to the less cosy and intimate smoking-room.
But there was no one here now, and Scott laid hat and riding-whip upon
the table and drew forward a chair for his companion.
She looked at him and tried to thank him, but she was voiceless. Her pale
lips moved without sound.
Scott's eyes were very kindly. "Don't be so frightened, child!" he said;
and then, a sudden thought striking him, "Look here! You go and wait in
the conservatory and let me speak to him first! Yes, that will be the
best way. Come!"
His hand touched her again. She turned as one compelled. But as he opened
the glass door, she found her voice.
"Oh, I ought not to--to let you face him alone. I must be brave. I must."
"Yes, you must," Scott answered. "But I will see him alone first. It will
make it easier for everyone."
Yet for a moment she halted still. "You really mean it? You wish it?"
"Yes, I wish it," he said.
Pages:
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440