His eyes belied the banter of his words.  They shone as the eyes of a fighter meeting odds.  There was something leonine about him at the moment, something of the primitive animal roused from its lair and scenting danger.

He looked into Scott’s pale face with the dawning of a threatening expression upon his own.

And Scott met the threat full and square and unflinching.  “I’ve come to tell you,” he said, “about the hardest thing one man can tell another.  Dinah wishes to be released from her engagement.”

His words were brief but very distinct.  He stiffened as he uttered them, almost as if he expected a blow.

But Sir Eustace stood silent and still, with only the growing menace in his eyes to show that he had heard.

Several seconds dragged away ere he made either sound or movement.  Then, with a sudden, fierce gesture, he gripped Scott by the shoulder.  “And you have the damnable impertinence to come and tell me!” he said.

There was violence barely restrained in voice and action.  He held Scott as if he would fling him against the wall.

But Scott remained absolutely passive, enduring the savage grip with no sign of resentment.  Only into his steady eyes there came that gleam as of steel that leaps to steel.

“I have told you,” he said, “because I have no choice.  She wishes to be set free, and—­she fears you too much to tell you so herself.”

Sir Eustace broke in upon him with a furious laugh that was in some fashion more insulting than a blow on the mouth.  “And she has deputed you to do so on her behalf!  Highly suitable!  Or did you volunteer for the job, most fearless knight?”

“I offered to help her—­certainly.”  Scott’s voice was as free from agitation as his pose.  “I would help any woman under such circumstances.  It’s no easy thing for her to break off her engagement at this stage.  And she is such a child.  She needs help.”

“She shall have it,” said Eustace grimly.  “But—­since you are here—­I will deal with you first.  Do you think I am going to endure any interference in this matter from you?  Think it over calmly.  Do you?”

His hold upon Scott had become an open threat.  His eyes were a red blaze of anger.  In that moment the animal in him was predominant, overwhelming.  He was furious with the fury of the wounded beast that is beyond all control.

Scott realized the fact, and grasped his own self-control with a firmer hand.  “It’s no good my telling you that I hate my job,” he said.  “You’ll hardly believe me if I do.  But I’ve got to stick to it, beastly as it is.  I can’t stand by and see her married against her will.  For that is what it amounts to.  She would give anything she has to be free.  She told me so.  I’m infernally sorry.  Perhaps you won’t believe that either.  But I’ve got to see this thing through now.”