"
"Thank you, Mr. Travers," the girl said gratefully. "But I'm glad that you
did tell him. Otherwise I might not have heard it, at least not from a
friend."
Just then the four men on the tennis-court finished their game and came in
to the bar. Fred Daleham and another took their places and began a single.
Mrs. Rice, with Dermot and several other men, came up the steps of the
verandah, and, sitting down, ordered tea for the party.
Noreen looked at her with angry eyes, and, rising, walked along the
verandah to where she was sitting surrounded by the group of men.
Her enemy looked up as she approached.
"Are you coming to have tea, dear?" she said sweetly. "I haven't ordered
any for you, but I daresay they'll find you a cup."
Dermot rose to offer the girl his chair; but, ignoring him, she confronted
the other woman.
"Mrs. Rice, will you please tell me if it is true that you said I was
engaged to Mr. Chunerbutty?" she demanded in a firm tone.
It was as if a bomb had exploded in the club. Noreen's voice carried
clearly through the building, so that everyone inside it heard her words
distinctly. The only two members of their little community who missed them
were her brother and his opponent on the tennis-court.
Mrs. Rice gasped and stared at the indignant girl, while the men about her
sat up suddenly in their chairs.
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