Fletcher kept a steady pace behind him, and she knew he would not be easily beaten.
Once he came and stood beside her after a very creditable break, and she slipped a shy hand into his for a few seconds.

His fingers closed upon it in that slow, inevitable way of his, but he neither spoke nor looked at her, and she had a feeling that his attention never for an instant wandered from the job in hand.

She admired him for his concentration, yet would she have been less than woman had she not felt slighted by it.
He might have given her one look! Adela was full of enthusiasm for his opponent, and that also caused her a vague sense of irritation.

She was beginning to feel as if the evening would never come to an end.
The scoring was by no means slow, however, and the general interest increased almost to fever pitch as the finish came in sight.

Hill's steady progress in the wake of his opponent seemed at length to disconcert the latter.