"You are getting very modest, Rose! Do you remember the last time we were opponents at bridge? But I won't tell tales out of school!"
Mrs. Bathurst looked annoyed.
"Would it be quite wise——?" she asked sharply.
But Deerehurst intervened.
"Well," he said, "shall we decide on forty-shilling points? Mr. Mansfeldt, do you agree?"
Mansfeldt, who was an intensely reserved and silent man, looked up unemotionally.
"I am in your hands," he said; and following the example already set by Clodagh and Mrs. Bathurst, he seated himself at the card-table.
"Very well! Forty-shilling points." Deerehurst also seated himself, and began to collect the scattered cards.
But with a swift gesture, Clodagh leant across the table and placed a detaining hand over his.
"Wait!" she said. "Let's make it eighty shillings a hundred!"