the morning! It is so late now. It will soon be dark."

Isabel made a sharp gesture of impatience. "Be quiet, child! You don't
understand. Of course I must go now. I have escaped from them, and if I
wait I shall be taken again. It would kill me to be kept back now. I must
meet him in the dawn on the mountain-top. What was it you called it? The
peaks of Paradise! That is where I shall find him. But I must start at
once--at once."

She threw another furtive look around, and stepped forth. Dinah's hand
closed upon her arm. "If you go, I am coming too," she said, with quick
resolution. "But won't you wait a moment--just a moment--while I run
and get some gloves?"

Isabel made a swift effort to disengage herself. "No, child, no! I can't
wait. If you met Eustace, he would make you tell him where you were
going, and then he would follow and bring me back. No, I must go now--at
once. Yes, you may come too if you like. But you mustn't keep me back. I
must go quickly--quickly--before they find out. Everything depends on
that."

There was no delaying her. Dinah cast another look towards the chattering
group, and gave up hope. She dared not leave her, for she had no idea of
the whereabouts of either of the brothers. And there was no time to make
a search. The only course open to her was to accompany her friend
whithersoever the fruitless quest should lead. She was convinced that
Isabel's physical powers of endurance were slight, and that when they
were exhausted she would be able to bring her back unresisting.

Nevertheless, she was conscious of a little tremor at the heart as they
set forth. There was an air of desperation about her companion that it
was impossible to overlook. Isabel's manner towards her was so wholly
devoid of that caressing element that had always marked their intimacy
till that moment. Without being actually frightened, she was very uneasy.
It was evident that Isabel was beyond all persuasion that day.

The sun was beginning to sink towards the western peaks as they turned up
the white track, casting long shadows across the snow. The pine-wood
through which the road wound was mysteriously dark. The rush of the
stream in the hollow had an eerie sound. It seemed to Dinah that the
ground they trod was bewitched. She almost expected to catch sight of
goblin-faces peering from behind the dark trunks. Now and then muffled in
the snow, she thought she heard the scamper of tiny feet.

Isabel went up the steep