One would have hesitated to address to her even the chance remarks which pass so easily between strangers around the tables.
"Violet here!" the man murmured under his breath.

"Violet!" There was tragedy in the whisper, a gleam of something like tragedy, too, in the look which passed between the man and the woman a few moments later.

With her hands full of plaques which she had just won, she raised her eyes at last from the board.

The smile upon her lips was the delighted smile of a girl.

And then, as she was in the act of sweeping her winnings into her gold bag, she saw the man opposite.