Greatheart | Page 6

How do you do? Isn't it a ripping day? It makes you want to climb,
doesn't it? I wish I'd got an alpenstock."
"Can't you get one anywhere?" asked Scott. "I thought they were
always to be had."
"Yes, but they cost money," sighed Dinah. "And I haven't got any. It
doesn't really matter though. There are lots of other things to do. Are
you keen on luging? I am."

Her bright eyes smiled into his with the utmost friendliness, and he
knew that she would not commit Billy's mistake and ask him if he
skated.
Her smile was infectious. The charm of it lingered after it had passed.
Her eyes were green like Billy's, only softer. They had a great deal of
sweetness in them, and a spice--just a spice of devilry as well. The rest
of the face would have been quite unremarkable, but the
laughter-loving mouth and pointed chin wholly redeemed it from the
commonplace. She was a little brown thing like a woodland creature,
and her dainty air and quick ways put Scott irresistibly in mind of a pert
robin.
In reply to her question he told her that he had arrived only the night
before. "And I am quite a tyro," he added. "I have been watching the
luging on that slope, and thanking all the stars that control my destiny
that I wasn't there."
She laughed, showing a row of small white teeth. "Oh, you'd love it
once you started. It's a heavenly sport if the run isn't bumpy. Isn't this a
glorious atmosphere? It makes one feel so happy."
She came and stood by his side to watch the skaters. Billy was seated
on the bank, impatiently changing his boots.
"I'm not going to wait for you any longer, Dinah," he said. "I'm fed up."
"Don't then!" she retorted. "I never asked you to."
"What a lie!" said Billy, with all a brother's gallantry.
She threw him a sister's look of scorn and deigned no rejoinder. But in
a moment the incident was forgotten. "Oh, look there!" she suddenly
exclaimed. "Isn't that just like Rose de Vigne? She's always sure to
appropriate the most handsome man within sight. I've been watching
that man from my window. He is a perfect Apollo, and skates divinely.
And now she's got him!"

Deep disgust was audible in her voice. Billy looked up with a sideways
grin. "You don't suppose he'd look at a sparrow like you, do you?" he
said. "He prefers a swan, you bet."
"Be quiet, Billy!" commanded Dinah, making an ineffectual dig at him
with her foot. "I don't want him to look at me. I hate men. But it is too
bad the way Rose always chooses the best. It's just the same with
everything. And I long--oh, I do long sometimes--to cut her out!"
"I should myself," said Scott unexpectedly. "But why don't you. I'm
sure you could."
She threw him a whimsical smile. "I!" she said. "Why that's about as
likely as--" she stopped short in some confusion.
He laughed a little. "You mean I might as soon hope to cut out Apollo?
But the cases are not parallel, I assure you. Besides, Apollo happens to
be my brother, which makes a difference."
"Oh, is he your brother? What a good thing you told me!" laughed
Dinah. "I might have said something rude about him in a minute."
"Like me!" said Billy, stumbling to his feet. "I made a most horrific
blunder, didn't I, Mr. Studley? I called him a bounder!"
Dinah looked at him witheringly. "You would!" she said. "Well, I hope
you apologized."
Billy stuck out his tongue at her. "I didn't then!" he returned, and skated
elegantly away on one leg.
"Billy," remarked Dinah dispassionately, "is not really such a horrid
little beast as he seems."
Scott smiled his courteous smile. "I had already gathered that," he said.
Her green eyes darted him a swift look, as if to ascertain if he were in
earnest. Then: "That was very nice of you," she said. "I wonder how
you knew."

He still smiled, but without much mirth. "A looker-on sees a good
many things, you know," he said.
Dinah's eyes flashed understanding. She said no more.
CHAPTER III
THE SEARCH
When Isabel came slowly forth at length from the hotel door whither
Biddy had conducted her, Scott was sitting alone on a bench in the
sunshine.
He rose at once to join her. "Why, how quick you have been! Or else
the time flies here. Eustace is still skating. I had no idea he was so
accomplished. See, there he is!"
But Isabel set her haggard face towards the mountain-road that wound
up beyond the hotel. "I am going to look for Basil," she said.
"It is waste of time," said