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.

"Well, aren't you engaged to him? Won't even he--?" she broke off and
sniggered impertinently.

"I am not. Most certainly not," said Noreen hotly. "I insist on your
answering me. Did you say that I had told you we were and asked you to keep
it a secret?"

"No, I did not. Who did I tell?" snapped the other woman.

"Me for one," broke in a voice; and Dermot took a step forward. "You
told me very clearly and precisely, Mrs. Rice, that Miss Daleham had
confided to you under the pledge of secrecy--which, by the way, you were
breaking--that she was engaged to this man."

There was an uncomfortable pause. Noreen glanced gratefully at her
champion. The other men shifted uneasily, and Mrs. Rice's husband, who was
standing at the bar, hastily hid his face in a whiskey and soda.

Noreen turned again to her traducer.

"Will you kindly contradict your false statement?" she asked.

The other woman looked down sullenly and made no reply.

"Then I shall," continued the girl. She faced the group of men before her,
Payne and Travers by her side.

"I ask you to believe, gentlemen, that there never was nor could be any
question of an engagement between Mr. Chunerbutty and me," she said firmly.
"And I give you my word of honour that I never said such a thing to Mrs.
Rice."

She waited for a moment, then turned and walked away down the verandah,
followed by Payne and Travers, leaving a pained silence behind her. Mrs.
Rice tried to regain her self-confidence.

"The idea of that chit talking to me like that!" she exclaimed. "It was
only meant for a joke, if I did say it. Who'd have ever thought she'd have
taken it that way?"

"Any decent man--or woman, Mrs. Rice," said Dermot severely. Then, after
looking at Rice to see if he wished to take up the cudgels on his wife's
behalf, and failing to catch that gentleman's carefully-averted eye, the
sold