e hill was something of a
difficulty to him. He moved slowly, and his limp became more pronounced.
"No, I should like to tell you about her," he said. "You were so good
yesterday, and I hadn't prepared you in the least. I hope it didn't give
you a shock."

"Of course it didn't," Dinah answered. "I'm not such a donkey as that. I
was only very, very sorry."

"Thank you," he said, as if she had expressed direct sympathy with
himself. "It's hard to believe, isn't it, that seven years ago she
was--even lovelier than the beautiful Miss de Vigne, only in a very
different style?"

"Not in the least," Dinah assured him. "She is far lovelier than Rose
now. She must have been--beautiful."

"She was," said Scott. "She was like Eustace, except that she was always
much softer than he is. You would scarcely believe either that she is
three years younger than he is, would you?"

"I certainly shouldn't," Dinah admitted. "But then, she must have come
through years of suffering."

"Yes," Scott spoke with slight constraint, as though he could not bear to
dwell on the subject. "She was a girl of intensely vivid feelings, very
passionate and warmhearted. She and Eustace were inseparable in the old
days. They did everything together. He thought more of her than of anyone
else in the world. He does still."

"He wasn't very nice to her last night," Dinah ventured.

"No. He is often like that, and she is afraid of him. But the reason of
it is that he feels her trouble so horribly, and whenever he sees her in
that mood it hurts him intolerably. He is quite a good chap underneath,
Miss Bathurst. Like Isabel, he feels certain things intensely. Of course
he is five years older than I am, and we have never been pals in the
sense that he and she were pals. I was always a slow-goer, and they went
like the wind. But I know him. I know what his feelings are, and what
this thing has been to him. And though I am now much more to Isabel than
he will probably ever be again, he has never resented it or been anything
but generous and willing to give place to me. That, you know, indicates
greatness. With all his faults, he is great."

"He shouldn't make her afraid of him," Dinah said.

"I am afraid that is inevitable. He is strong, and she has lost her
strength. Her marriage too alienated them in the first place. She had
refused so many before Basil Everard came along, and I suppose he had
begun to think that she was not the marrying sort. But Evera