"Well done!" commented a lazy voice behind her. "Now raise the drawbridge and lower the portcullis, and the honours of war are assured."
She turned with the flashing movement of a bird upon the wing, and found herself face to face with Sir Eustace.
His blue eyes met hers with deliberate nonchalance. "Sit down," he said, "while I fetch you some tea!"
Her heart gave an odd little leap that was half of pleasure and half of dread. She stammered incoherently that he must not take the trouble.
But he was evidently bent upon so doing, for he pressed her into the seat which he had just vacated. "Keep the place in the corner for me!" he commanded, and lounged away upon his errand with imperial leisureliness.
Dinah watched his tall figure out of sight. The encounter both astounded and thrilled her. She wondered if she were cheapening herself by meekly obeying his behest, wondered what Rose—that practised coquette—would have done under such circumstances; but to depart seemed so wholly out of the question that she dismissed the wonder as futile. She could only wait for the play to develop, and trust to her own particular luck, which had so favoured her the night before, to give her a cue.
He returned with tea and cake which he set before her on a little table that he had apparently secured beforehand for the purpose. "I am sure you must be ravenous," he said, in those high-bred, somewhat insolent accents of his.
"I am," Dinah admitted frankly.
"Then let me see you satisfy your hunger!" he said, seating himself in the corner he had reserved.
"Oh, but not alone!" she protested. "You—you must have some too."