It was a disagreeable thought, and, in the hope of banishing it, he
refilled his glass; but his mood had begun to change. It seemed to him
that Helene was watching Cooley a great deal too devotedly. Why had she
consented to sit by Cooley, when she had promised to watch Robert Russ
Mellin? He observed the pair stealthily.
Cooley consulted her in laughing whispers upon every discard, upon every
bet. Now and then, in their whisperings, Cooley's hair touched hers;
sometimes she laid her hand on his the more conveniently to look at his
cards. Mellin began to be enraged. Did she think that puling milksop
had as much as a shadow of the daring, the devilry, the carelessness of
consequences which lay within Robert Russ Mellin? "Consequences?" What
were they? There were no such things! She would not look at him--well,
he would make her! Thenceforward he raised every bet by another to the
extent of the limit agreed upon.
Mr. Cooley was thoroughly happy. He did not resemble Ulysses; he would
never have had himself bound to the mast; and there were already sounds
of unearthly sweetness in his ears.
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