Then he frowned as the distasteful memory
recurred to him of the previous night, when a wanton woman, misled by
vanity and his courteous manner, had shamelessly offered him what she
termed her love and forced him to play the Joseph to a modern Mrs.
Potiphar.
CHAPTER XV
THE FEAST OF THE GODDESS KALI
The Rains were nearing their end, and with them the Darjeeling Season was
drawing to a close. To Noreen Daleham it had lost its savour since Dermot's
departure. Her feelings towards Ida had undergone a radical change; her
admiration of and affection for her old schoolfellow had vanished. Her eyes
were opened, and she now saw plainly the true character of the woman whom
once she was proud to call her friend. The girl wondered that she could
have ever been deceived, for she now understood the many innuendoes that
had been made in her hearing against Mrs. Smith, as well as many things in
that lady's own behaviour that had perplexed her at the time.
But towards the man her feelings were frankly anger and contempt. He had
rudely awakened her from a beautiful dream; for that she could never
forgive him. Her idol was shattered, never again to be made whole, so she
vowed in the bitterness of her desolate soul. It was not friendship that
she had felt for him--she realised that now. It was love. She had given him
her whole heart in a girl's first, pure, ideal love.
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