But she never dreamed again that golden dream of Greatheart in his shining armour with the light of a great worship in his eyes.  That had been a wild flight of presumptuous fancy that never could come true.

His was not the only hand to which she clung during those terrible days of fear and suffering.  Another presence was almost constantly beside her night and day,—­a tender, motherly presence that watched over and ministered to her with a devotion that never slackened.  For some time Dinah could not find a name for this gracious and comforting presence, but one day when a figure clothed in a violet dressing-gown stooped over her to give her nourishment an illuminating memory came to her, and from that moment this loving nurse of hers filled a particular niche in her heart which was dedicated to the Purple Empress.  She could think of no other name for her.  That quiet and stately presence seemed to demand a royal appellation.  In her calmer moments Dinah liked to lie and watch the still face with its crown of silvery hair.  She loved the touch of the white hands that always knew with unerring intuition exactly what needed to be done.  There seemed to be healing in their touch.

Very strangely the thought of Eustace never came to her, or coming, but flitted unrecorded and undetained across the surface of her mind.  He had receded with all the rest of the world into the far, far distance that lay behind her.  He had no place in this region of many shadows where these others so tenderly guided her wandering feet.  No one else had any place there save old Biddy who, being never absent, seemed a part of the atmosphere, and the doctor who came and went like a presiding genie in that waste of desolation.

She did not welcome his visits, although he was invariably kind, for on one occasion she caught a low murmur from him to the effect that her mother had better come to her, and this suggestion had thrown her into a most painful state of apprehension.  She had implored them weeping to let her mother stay away, and they had hushed her with soothing promises; but she never saw the doctor thereafter without a nervous dread that she might also see her mother’s gaunt figure accompanying him.  And she was sure—­quite sure—­that her mother would be very angry with her when she saw her helplessness.

Nightmares of her mother’s advent began to trouble her.  She would start up in anguish of soul, scarcely believing in the soothing arms that held her till their tenderness hushed her back to calmness.

“No one can come to you, sweetheart, while I am here.”  How often she heard the low words murmured lovingly over her head!  “See, I am holding you!  You are quite safe.  No one can take you from me.”

And Dinah would cling to her beloved empress till her panic died away.

On one of these occasions Scott was present, and he presently left the sick-room with a look in his eyes that gave him a curiously hard expression.  He went deliberately in search of Billy whom he found playing a not very spirited game with the two little daughters of the establishment.  The weather had broken, and several people had left in consequence.