The fact deterred her for a second, but only for a second. Then swiftly she went forward and joined her.
"Are you looking for someone, dear Mrs. Everard?"
Isabel's eyes glanced at her, and instantly looked beyond. "I am looking for my husband," she said, her voice quick and low. "He does not seem to be here. You have not seen him, I suppose? He is tall and fair with a boyish smile, and eyes that look straight at you. He laughs a good deal. He is always laughing. You couldn't fail to notice him. He is one whom the gods love."
Again her eyes roamed over Dinah, and again they passed her to scan the mist-wreathed mountains.
Dinah slipped a loving hand through her arm. "He is not here, dear," she said. "Come and sit down for a little! The sun won't be gone yet. We can watch it go."
She tried to draw her gently along the verandah, but Isabel resisted. "No--no! I am not going that way. I have to go up the mountains to meet him. Don't keep me! Don't keep me!"
Dinah threw an anxious look around. There was no one near them. Rose had moved away to join a group just returned from the rink. The laughter and gay voices rose on the still air in merry chorus. No one knew or cared of the living tragedy so near.
Pleadingly she turned to Isabel. "Darling Mrs. Everard, need you go now? Wait till the morning! It is so late now. It will soon be dark."
Isabel made a sharp gesture of impatience. "Be quiet, child! You don't understand. Of course I must go now. I have escaped from them, and if I wait I shall be taken again. It would kill me to be kept back now. I must meet him in the dawn on the mountain-top. What was it you called it? The peaks of Paradise! That is where I shall find him. But I must start at once--at once."
She threw another furtive look around, and stepped forth. Dinah's hand closed upon her arm. "If you go, I am coming too," she said, with quick resolution. "But won't you wait a moment--just a moment--while I run and get some gloves?"
Isabel made a swift effort to disengage herself. "No, child, no! I can't wait. If you met Eustace, he would make you tell him where you were going, and then he would follow and bring me back. No, I must go now--at once. Yes, you may come too if you like. But you mustn't keep me back. I must go quickly--quickly--before they find out. Everything depends on that."