Page:The Plutocrat (1927).pdf/122

 "Yes," he said slowly, "I 'noticed' that you were there, Madame Momoro."

She gave him a grave little nod of acknowledgment. "That is flattering. What do you wonder?"

"Nothing—except that it was quiet in the lounge and I wonder how you heard the noisiness of the smoking-room."

"I think," she returned, gazing before her out to sea, "you are really wondering how I met Mr. Tinker."

This was so shrewdly the truth that Ogle blushed again and became a little confused. "I didn't mean to ask such a thing," he said. "I didn't intend"

But her quiet laughter interrupted him. "It was droll!" she said. "When we had played our last rubber, Hyacinthe asked me to go to the smoking-room to have a liqueur and a cigarette. Never did you hear so much noise as there was in that place when we sat down—never! Some thought themselves to be singing; you could not understand how they could have such a belief. Then all at once Mr. Tinker shouted louder than all of them together: 'There is a lady present,' he told them, and, 'Maybe she don't care so much about music as we do.' And he came over to where I sat and asked me if I wish