The girl shook her head and laughed.
"Was it perhaps in another existence? Did we dance together, you and I, in the old happy days when Pan reigned? Now I think of it, were you not the wood-nymph who vanished from me into the arms of a great tree? Did you not tread one measure with me in the merry wood-dance, and then leave me desolate with a tryst appointed but never kept?"
"Did you not soon find another partner?"
"I waited long alone."
"And if I could not come sooner?"
"Well, you have come at last to keep the tryst. Will you finish that dance which was begun so many eons ago?"
"Ay me! and can we now dance the same measure, you and I? Would not our feet tread inharmonious steps?"
"Which of us can say? Shall we try?"
"If you say my word was given, I know not how to break it."
The room had grown dim, and Barbara and Ferrara in the recess of the window were speaking together, while Millicent sat gazing dreamily into the glowing heart of the low-burning fire, conscious that Graham was looking intently on her face. She dared not lift her eyes to his, and veiled them with the downcast lids. Not what she might read daunted her, but what might be revealed to the man who sat leaning forward in the quaintly-carven oak chair.