But before she could qualify it,
Bert's angry and impatient answer had come:
"Don't talk nonsense! Do you want everyone to think that, now I'm
out for myself, I can't make a go of it? What would Ingram and
Biggerstaff think, if I began to talk money tightness? I didn't
leave the firm, and strike out for myself to give in this soon!"
Nancy had shrunk back, instantly silenced. She had not spoken to
him again until Oliver Rose called, to remind them of the tennis,
and then, hating herself while she did it, Nancy had forced
herself to speak to Bert, and Bert had somewhat gruffly replied.
Once at the club, all signs of the storm must be quickly brushed
aside, but the lingering clouds lay over her heart now, and she
felt desolate and troubled. She did not want to excuse herself and
go home, she did not want to go out and watch more tennis, but she
felt vaguely that she did not want to play bridge, either. The
other women bored her.
Chapter Thirty-one
Dummy again. She seemed to be dummy often, this afternoon. They
were playing for quarter cents, but even that low stake, Nancy
thought irritably, ran up into a considerable sum, when one's
partner bid as madly as young Mrs.
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