I don't
know exactly how much money I had, but it was between thirty-five and
thirty-eight thousand francs, and Sneyd won it all after we took off the
limit--over seven thousand dollars--at her table last night. Putting two
and two together, honestly it looks bad. It looks _mighty_ bad! Now, I'm
pretty well fixed, and yesterday I didn't care whether school kept or
not, but seven thousand dollars is real money to anybody! My old man
worked pretty hard for his first seven thousand, I guess, and"--he
gulped--"he'd think a lot of me for lettin' go of it the way I did last
night, _wouldn't_ he? You never _see_ things like this till the next
morning! And you remember that other woman sat where she could see every
hand _you_ drew, and the Countess--"
"Stop!" Mellin flung one arm up violently, striking the headboard with
his knuckles. "I won't hear a syllable against Madame de Vaurigard!"
Young Cooley regarded him steadily for a moment. "Have you remembered
yet," he said slowly, "how much _you_ lost last night?"
"I only remember that I behaved like an unspeakable boor in the presence
of the divinest creature that ever--"
Cooley disregarded the outburst, and said:
"When we settled, you had a pad of express company checks worth six
hundred dollars.
Pages:
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73