post. She is very
accomplished, speaks French, German, and Italian fluently, and is a
good reader. Oh, must you go?" as Malcolm looked at his watch with some
significance.

"I am afraid I must not lose this train," he replied hastily, "but I
shall hope to run down again in a week or two. You will let me know how
things go on," addressing Dinah, "and if there be anything I can do for
you?" and then he shook hands with Elizabeth rather hurriedly and went
off to secure his luggage.

"I hope we did not keep him too long," observed Elizabeth anxiously,
"for he is running as though he were late." But Dinah did not hear her;
she had already taken up her position by the window, and was looking
out for Cedric.

CHAPTER XXXIV

TRAVELLING THROUGH SAHARA

The hope I dreamed of was a dream--
Was but a dream; and now I wake
Exceeding comfortless, and worn and sad
For a dream's sake.
--CHRISTINA ROSSETTI.

For the next few weeks Malcolm was much occupied with business, but he
contrived to pay a flying visit to Oxford, and to spend a few hours
with Dinah and Cedric. He had corresponded with Dinah regularly, and
her letters told him all he most wished to know. At first they had been
very sad. Cedric had broken down utterly on seeing his sisters, and
both she and Elizabeth had been very much upset. The change in him was
so great that they could hardly recognise their bright-faced boy, and
Dinah owned that they had been shocked by the hard, reckless manner in
which he had spoken. "I think Mr. Jacobi's influence has done great
harm," she wrote; "Cedric says such extraordinary things sometimes,
that I feel quite frightened to hear him. He never used to talk
so--surely Oxford cannot have done this." Malcolm ground his teeth
rather savagely when he read this. "He has poisoned the wells," he said
to himself a second time. "There is no punishment too severe for one
who tries to contaminate the innocence of youth!"

Dinah's letters became more cheerful after a time. Cedric liked having
her near him, and she saw him for an hour or two every day. Elizabeth
had not come down again. David Carlyon was not well. He had caught a
fresh cold, and Elizabeth seemed worried about him, all the more that
his sister was with him, and Theo did not understand nursing. "Theo
Carlyon is rather an unsatisfactory person," wrote Dinah.

By-and-by she gave him news of Leah Jacobi. Mrs. Godfrey's brilliant
i