“What was that?” he asked... “Oh! I remember. Mrs Carruthers is always giving me the same. No; I don’t think there is much chance of my doing that.”
Carruthers sauntered towards them with every intention, Dare realised, of ending the tête-à-tête.
“You play at my table, Mrs Arnott,” he said. He glanced at Dare. “The wife has put you at the no-stakes table,” he added, grinning. “She thinks it is good for your morals to play for love on occasions.”
Dare regarded the speaker coolly.
“That sounds like your joke, rather than Mrs Carruthers’,” he remarked; “it’s so feeble.”
Carruthers chuckled.
“Ask her,” he returned.
Pamela looked back at Dare over her shoulder as she moved away beside her host.
“It’s quite the best game, really,” she said, and smiled at him.
“I admit it,” he answered quietly, “when one is allowed to choose one’s partner.”