r on.

To and fro, to and fro, she wandered, scarcely knowing what she wanted,
only urged by that unbearable restlessness that gave her no respite. Of
the future ahead of her she did not definitely think. Her marriage still
seemed too intangible a matter for serious contemplation. She still in
her child's heart believed that marriage would make a difference. He
would not make such ardent love to her when they were married. They would
both have so many other things to think about. It was the present that so
weighed upon her, her lover's almost appalling intensity of worship and
her own utter inadequacy and futility.

Again, as often before, the question arose within her, How would Rose
have met the situation? Would she have been dismayed? Would she have
shrunk from those fiery kisses? Or could she--could she possibly--have
remained calm and complacent and dignified in the midst of those surging
tempests of love? But yet again she failed completely to picture Rose so
mastered, so possessed, by any man; Rose the queen whom all men
worshipped with reverence from afar. She wondered again how Sir Eustace
had managed to elude the subtle charm she cast upon all about her. He had
actually declared that her perfection bored him. It was evident that she
left him cold. Dinah marvelled at the fact, so certain was she that had
he humbled himself to ask for Rose's favour it would have been instantly
and graciously accorded to him.

It would have saved a lot of trouble if he had fallen in love with Rose,
she reflected; and then the old thrill of triumph went through her,
temporarily buoying her up. She had been preferred to Rose. She had
beaten Rose on her own ground, she the little, insignificant adjunct of
the de Vigne party! She was glad--oh, she was very glad!--that Rose was
to have so close a view of her final conquest.

She began to take comfort in the thought of her approaching wedding and
all its attendant glories, picturing every detail with girlish zest. To
be the queen of such a brilliant ceremony as that! To be received into
the County as one entering a new world! To belong to that Society from
which her mother had been excluded! To be in short--her ladyship.

A new excitement began to urge Dinah. She picked up a towel and draped it
about her head and shoulders like a bridal veil. Her mother would have
rated her for such vanity, but for the moment vanity was her only
comfort, and the thought of her mother did not troubl