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.
"I said so? What an idea!" ejaculated the planter's wife. Then in an insinuating voice she added: "You know I never betray secrets."
"There is no secret. Please answer me. Did you say to any one that I had told you I was engaged to him?" persisted the girl.
The older woman tried to crush her by a haughty assumption of superiority.
"You absurd child, you must be careful what accusations you bring. You shouldn't say such things."
"Kindly answer my question," demanded the angry girl.
Mrs. Rice lay back in her chair with affected carelessness.