d at all. I am very bad."

She almost tore herself free a second later, and Isabel, divining that
any further demonstration from her would cause a breakdown, bade her a
loving good night and went away.

Dinah stood awhile struggling for self-control. She had been perilously
near to baring her soul to Isabel in those moments of tenderness. Even
now the impulse urged her to run after her and tell her of the temptation
to which she was yielding. She forced it down with clenched hands,
telling herself over and over that it was her last chance, her last
chance, and she must not lose it. And so at length it passed; and with it
passed also the pricks of conscience that had so troubled her. She
emerged from the brief struggle with a sense of mad triumph. The spirit
of adventure had entered into her, and she no longer paused to count the
cost.

"I expect I shall be sorry in the morning," she said to herself. "But
to-night--oh, to-night--nothing matters except Apollo!"

She whisked to the door and set it ajar. The dance-music drew her, drew
her, like the voice of a siren. For that one night she would live again.
She would feel his arm about her and the magic in her brain. Already her
feet yearned to the alluring rhythm. She leaned against the door-post,
and gave herself up to her dream. Yet once more the wine of the gods was
held to her lips. She would drink deeply, deeply.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE GOLDEN MAZE

Softly the strains of _Simple Aveu_ floated along the corridor. It came
like fairy music, now near, now far, haunting as a dream, woven through
and through with the gold of Romance.

Someone was coming along the passage with the easy swing of the born
dancer, and pressed against her door-post in the shadows, another born
dancer awaited him with a wildly throbbing heart.

The die was cast, and there was no going back. She heard the deep voice
humming the magic melody as he came. In a moment the superb figure came
into sight, moving with that royal ease of carriage so characteristic and
so wonderful.

He drew near. He spied the small white figure lurking in the dimness.
With a low laugh he opened his arms to her.

And then there came to Dinah, not for the first time, a strange, wholly
indefinable misgiving. It was a warning so insistent that she suddenly
and swiftly drew back, as if she would flee into the room behind her.

But he was too quick for her. He caught her on the threshold. "Oh no,
no!" he laughe