"I can only give you one," she said, with a great effort at sobriety.
"What? Oh, nonsense!" he protested, his blue eyes dominating hers. "You couldn't be so shabby as that!"
Dinah's chin pointed merrily upwards. The situation had its humour. It was certainly rather amusing to elude him. She knew he had caught her far too easily the night before.
"It's all I have to offer," she declared.
"Meaning you're not going to dance more than one dance?" he asked.
She opened her laughing eyes wide. "Why should it mean that? You're not the only man in the room, are you?"
Sir Eustace's jaw set itself suddenly after a fashion that made him look formidable, albeit he laughed back at her with his eyes. "All right—Daphne," he murmured. "I'll have the first."
Dinah's heart gave a little throb of apprehension, but she quieted it impatiently. What had she to fear? She nodded and lightly turned away.
All through dinner she alternately dreaded and longed for the moment of his coming to claim that dance from her. That haughty confidence of his had struck a curious chord in her soul, and the suspense was almost unbearable.
She noticed that Rose was very serene and smiling, and she regarded her complacency with growing resentment. Rose could dance as often as she liked with him, and no one would find fault. Rose had had him all to herself throughout the afternoon moreover. She knew very well that had the ski-ing lesson been offered to her, she would not have been allowed to avail herself of it.