A red fire of resentment smouldered in the old woman’s eyes, but Scott paid no attention to it.  “You’d better get some sleep yourself, Biddy, if you can,” he said.  “No more, thanks.  You will be out in an hour then, Isabel?”

“Perhaps,” she said.

He paused, standing beside her.  “If you are not out in an hour I shall come and fetch you,” he said.

She put forth an appealing hand like a child.  “I will come out, Stumpy.  I will come out,” she said tremulously.

He pressed the hand for a moment.  “In an hour then, I want to show you everything.  There is plenty to be seen.”

He turned to the door, looked back with a parting smile, and went out.

Isabel did not see the smile.  She was staring moodily downwards with eyes that only looked within.

CHAPTER II

THE LOOKER-ON

Down on the skating-rink below the hotel, a crowd of people were making merry.  The ice was in splendid condition.  It sparkled in the sun like a sheet of frosted glass, and over it the skaters glided with much mirth and laughter.

Scott stood on the road above and watched them.  There were a good many accomplished performers among them, and there were also several beginners.  But all seemed alike infected with the gaiety of the place.  There was not one face that did not wear a smile.

It was an invigorating scene.  From a slope of the white mountain-side beyond the rink the shouts and laughter of higers came through the crystal air.  A string of luges was shooting down the run, and even as Scott caught sight of it the foremost came to grief, and a dozen people rolled ignominiously in the snow.  He smiled involuntarily.  He seemed to have stepped into an atmosphere of irresponsible youth.  The air was full of the magic fluid.  It stirred his pulses like a draught of champagne.

Then his eyes returned to the rink, and almost immediately singled out the best skater there.  A man in a white sweater, dark, handsome, magnificently made, supremely sure of himself, darted with the swift grace of a swallow through the throng.  His absolute confidence and splendid physique made him conspicuous.  He executed elaborate figures with such perfect ease and certainty of movement that many turned to look at him in astonished admiration.

“Great Scott!” said a cracked voice at Scott’s shoulder.

He turned sharply, and met the frank regard of a rosy-faced schoolboy a little shorter than himself.

“Look at that bloomin’ swell!” said the new-comer in tones of deep disgust.  “He seems to have sprouted in the night.  I’ve no use for these star skaters myself.  They’re all so beastly sidey.”

He addressed Scott as an equal, and as an equal Scott made reply.  “P’raps when you’re a star skater yourself, you’ll change your mind about ’em.”

The boy grinned.  “Ah!  P’raps!  You’re a new chum, aren’t you?”