The paroxysm did not last long, and in that fact most poignantly did Dinah realize the waning strength.
Dumbly she stood and watched Biddy lay the inanimate figure back upon the pillows. Isabel had sunk into a state of exhaustion that was almost torpor.
"She'll sleep now, dear lamb," said Biddy, and tenderly covered her over as though she had been a child.
She turned round to Dinah, looking at her with shrewd darting eyes. "Ye'd better be getting along to your lover, Miss Dinah," she said. "He'll be wanting ye to dance with him."
But Dinah stood her ground with a little shiver. The bare thought of dancing at that moment made her feel physically sick. "Biddy! Biddy!" she whispered, "what has happened to make her--like this?"
"And ye may well ask!" said Biddy darkly. "But it's not for me to tell ye. Ye'd best run along, Miss Dinah dear, and be happy while ye can."
"But I'm not happy!" broke from Dinah. "How can I be? Biddy, what has happened? You must tell me if you can. She wasn't like this a fortnight ago. She has never been--quite like this--before."
Biddy pursed her lips. "Sure, we none of us travel the same road twice, Miss Dinah," she said.
But Dinah would not be satisfied with so vague an axiom.
"Something has happened," she said. "Come into the next room and tell me all about it! Please, Biddy!"
Biddy glanced at the bed. "She'll not hear ye in here, Miss Dinah," she said. "And what for should I be telling ye at all? Ye'll be Sir Eustace's bride in less than forty-eight hours from now, so it's maybe better ye shouldn't know."
"I must know," Dinah said, and with the words a great wave of resolution went through her, uplifting her, inspiring her. "I've got to know," she said. "Whatever happens, I've got to know."
Biddy left the bedside and came close to her. "If ye insist, Miss Dinah--" she said.
"I do--I do insist." Never in her life before had Dinah spoken with such authority, but a force within was urging her--a force irresistible; she spoke as one compelled.
Biddy came closer still. "Ye'll not tell Master Scott--nor any of 'em--if I tell ye?" she whispered.
"No, no; of course--no!" Dinah's voice came breathlessly; she had not the power to draw back.
"Ye promise, Miss Dinah?" Biddy could be insistent too; her eyes burned like live coals.