Cleopatra's hand shook a little, but she did not look up.
"He probably noticed us waiting outside and thought you were the schoolmistress of the party,—that's all," interjected Vanessa.
Everybody laughed except Leonetta.
"That's absurd," she protested, "because he could scarcely have thought I could be——"
But her voice was drowned by more laughter, led chiefly by Vanessa.
"Oh, well, it's not worth arguing about, any way," said the Jewess, twirling her bathing dress round very rapidly.
"Don't do that!" cried Leonetta sharply. "Can't you see that you're simply drenching poor Peachy?"
Mrs. Delarayne smiled imperceptibly at this remark, and all the bathers ran off to prepare for lunch.
"I think," said the widow to her elder daughter, "that it would have been only considerate if Denis had offered to stay behind to keep you company this morning."
Cleopatra, bundling up her work with lightning speed, rose. Her ears were hot and red, and she could not let her mother see her face.