"Of course it isn't! It's horrid," she agreed. "But every day makes it less likely that it will last much longer. And I expect it's much worse in England," she added.
"I wonder," said Sir Eustace. "There's the hunting anyway."
"Oh no; it would freeze directly you got there," she said, with a shaky little laugh. "And then you would wish you had stayed here."
"I could shoot," said Sir Eustace.
"And there is the Hunt Ball, isn't there?" said Dinah with more assurance.
He looked at her keenly. "What Hunt Ball?"
She met his eyes with a faint challenge in her own. "I heard you were going to stay with the de Vignes. They always go to the Hunt Ball every year."
"Do you go?" asked Sir Eustace.
She shook her head. "No. I never go anywhere."
She saw his eyes soften unexpectedly as he said, "Then there isn't much inducement for me to go, is there?"