"Oh, I'm all right," she gasped. "Please keep that. It's your cup, isn't it?" She could not bear this unendurable honour.
"You must have that. Godfrey can fetch another. He is growing fat and lazy."
"Connie," desperately blundered Muriel, seeking as usual to cast the responsibility of life's gifts on to someone else, "don't you want this?"
"Godfrey, get two more cups," said Delia.
But Connie unexpectedly replied:
"No thank you, Miss Vaughan, Freddy Mason promised to bring me some."
"Did he?" whispered Muriel, under the sheltering stir of Godfrey's departure back to the Pavilion.
"No, of course he didn't. But do you think I was going to have that Vaughan girl showing off in front of me? You've got no pride, Muriel."
So after Godfrey Neale returned, Muriel, being without pride, drank gratefully the cup of shame, while Connie thirsted proudly by her side.
At that moment, Mrs. Hammond, returning from her croquet, appeared round the corner of the Pavilion with Mrs. Cartwright. She saw Muriel on the steps. She saw Godfrey Neale bending over her with a plate of little cakes. Muriel, looking up, saw the sudden gleam that crossed her face, like winter sunlight on a melting pool.