Vidal leaned his shoulders against the mantelpiece, and thrust his hands deep into his pockets. “I never pursue forlorn hopes, uncle,” he said sweetly. “I’ve come for the pleasure of seeing you. Can you doubt it?”

His lordship shot out a hand. “Now don’t do that, my boy!” he said. “Damme, when you start talking like Avon I’m off! If you’ve not come to borrow money—”

“Boot’s on the other leg,” interrupted the Marquis. Lord Rupert’s jaw dropped. “Ecod, was it you lent me five hundred pounds last month? When did I say I’d pay?”

“Judgment Day, belike,” said his undutiful nephew. Lord Rupert, shook his head. “Won’t be before, if the luck don’t turn soon,” he agreed gloomily. “If you stand in need of it, my boy, I might ask Avon for a trifle.”

“Lord, I could ask him myself, couldn’t I?” the Marquis said.

“Well, I don’t mind telling you, Vidal, that’s a thing I don’t do till the tipstaffs are after me,” confessed Rupert. “I’m not saying Avon’s mean, but he’s devilish unpleasant over these little affairs.”

The Marquis glanced down at him with a glint in his eyes. “Sir, I am constrained to remind you that his grace has the honour to be my sire.”

“Don’t do it,” roared his uncle. “Look’ee, Vidal, if you’re going to look down your nose, and turn into the living spit of Justin, you’ve one friend the less. I’m done with you.”

“My God, could I survive?” mocked the Marquis. Lord Rupert started to get up, but was thrust back again. “Easy now,” said his nephew. “I’ve done.”

Rupert relaxed again. “Y’know, you’ll have to watch it, Dominic,” he said severely. “One in the family’s too much already. Avon’s got a damned nasty way with him, and if you fall into it you’ll find yourself with a whole pack of enemies.” He stopped and scratched his head. “Not but what you’ve got them already, ha’n’t you?”

Vidal shrugged. “I dare say,” he replied indifferently. “I don’t lose sleep over them.”

“Cool fish, ain’t you?” said Rupert, eyeing him. “Ever let anything trouble you?”

The Marquis yawned. Tve never found anything worth troubling over.”

“H’m! Not even women?” The thin lips curled. “Least of all women.” Lord Rupert looked solemn. “Won’t do, y’know. Must care about something, Dominic.”

“Sermon, uncle?”

“Advice, my boy. Damn it, there’s something wrong with you, so there is! Never see you but what you’re after some wench or other, and the devil’s in it you don’t care for one of ’em—” He broke off and clapped a hand to his brow. “That’s got it!” he exclaimed. “Put me in mind of what I had to say to you!”

“Oh?” A faint interest sounded in Vidal’s voice. “Have you found a charmer, Rupert? At your age, too!”

“Fiend seize it! D’you think I’m in my dotage!” said his lordship indignantly. “But that’s not it. This is serious, Dominic. Where’s the burgundy? Take a drop, my boy; it won’t do you a mite of harm.” He picked up the bottle, and poured out two glasses. “Ay, it’s serious this tune, I warn you

—What do you think of the wine? Not so bad, eh? Forget where I got it.”

“It’s good,” said the Marquis positively, and poured out two more glasses. “You had it from my cellar.”

“Did I so? I’ll say this for you, Vidal, youVe inherited your father’s palate. It’s the best thing I know of either of you.”

The Marquis bowed. “We thank you. What’s your serious warning?”

“I’m just about to tell you, aren’t I? Don’t keep breaking in, my boy; it’s a devilish bad habit.” He drained his glass, and set it down. “That’s cleared my head a trifle. It’s that yellow-headed chit, Dominic. Filly you had on your arm at Vauxhall Gardens t’other night. Can’t remember her name.”

“Well?” said his lordship.

Rupert reached out a long arm for the bottle. “Avon’s got wind of her.”

“Well?”

Rupert turned his head to look at him. “Don’t keep on saying ‘Well,’ burn you!” he said testily. “I’m telling you Avon’s heard things, and he ain’t pleased.”

“Do you expect me to break out in a sweat?” asked Vidal. “Of course my father knows. It’s a habit with him.”

“And a damned bad habit, too,” said Rupert feelingly. “You know your own business best, or, at any rate, you think you do, but if you take my advice, you’ll go easy with—what in hell’s the girl’s name?”

“You can pass over her name.”

“No, I can’t,” contradicted Rupert. “I can’t go on calling her girl, filly, chit, yaller-head; it throws me out.”

“Just as you please,” yawned Vidal. “You’ll forget it in five minutes. Sophia.”

“That’s it,” nodded my lord. “Never could stand the name since I got entangled with a widow called Sophia. D’you know, boy, that woman well-nigh married me?”

“That wasn’t Sophia,” objected Vidal. “That was Maria Hiscock.”

“No, no, that’s a different one,” said Rupert impatiently. “Sophia was years before your time. And she devilish nearly had me. You be warned, Dominic.”

“You are kindness itself,” answered Vidal politely, “I can only repeat what I seem to have said already several times; I do not at this present contemplate marriage.”

“But ain’t this Sophia a thought different from the others?” asked his lordship curiously. “Daughter of a cit? Lay you odds you stir up trouble there.”

“Not I. If it were the sister now—!” Vidal gave a short laugh. “That’s one of those enemies of mine you spoke of, or I’m much mistaken.”

“Didn’t see the sister, did I? The mother will do what she can to see you tied up in wedlock. ’Pon my soul, if I ever set eyes on a worse harpy!”

“And the sister would send me to the devil,” Vidal said. “I don’t please Miss Prunes and Prisms.”

Lord Rupert cocked an eyebrow. “Don’t you, begad? And does she please you?”

“Good God, no! We don’t deal together. She’d spoil sport if she could.” He showed his teeth in a rather saturnine smile. “Well, if she chooses to cross swords with me, she’ll maybe learn something in the encounter.” He picked up his hat and cane, and strolled to the door. “I’ll leave you, beloved. You’re becoming damned moral, you know.” He went out and the door shut behind him before Lord Rupert, astonished and indignant at the charge, could think of a suitable retort.

Chapter IV

MY Lord Carlisle having discovered that his sedate protege had an incongruous passion for gambling, thought he could do no better for him than to introduce him to the newest of the hells. The young man seemed to have plenty of money at his command, and if he chose to lose it over the dice, it was no business of my lord’s. Of late Mr. Comyn’s face had worn a very serious expression, and my lord had no hesitation in laying this at Miss Martin’s door, that sprightly damsel having been bundled off to Paris in charge of her brother.

“Hang all women!” Carlisle said blithely. “Why, man, there’s not one worth the half of these glum looks of yours.”

Mr. Comyn eyed him calmly. “You are merry, sir, but you mistake,” he said politely. “I believe I have a natural gravity which perhaps misleads you.”

“Devil a bit,” said his lordship. “I know all about you, my friend. Gone to France, hasn’t she? I see young Marling’s back again.”

Mr. Comyn compressed his lips. My lord laughed. “Don’t like him, do you? Well, it’s a dull dog.” He clapped Mr. Comyn on the shoulder. “You’ll forget the fair Juliana over a bottle. Tell you what, I’ll take you to Timothy’s.”

“I shall be happy to accompany your lordship,” bowed Mr. Comyn.

“You’re not in society until you’ve crossed that threshold,” Carlisle went on. “It’s the newest of the hells. Vidal and Fox made it the fashion. The play’s high; you’re not the man to mind that, I take it. All the same,” he added thoughtfully,

“I’d not play at Vidal’s table if I were you. The pace he sets is a trifle too hot for most of us. Don’t know if you’ve run across the Devil’s Cub yet?”

“I had the honour of meeting his lordship at the drum last week,” said Mr. Comyn. “I shall be happy to renew my acquaintance with him.”

Carlisle stared. “Will you, by gad?” he said.

Timothy’s was a discreet-looking establishment in a street off St. James’s. An unobtrusive individual, casually strolling up and down the road, was pointed out to Mr. Comyn as the orderly-man, engaged to give warning if any constables approached. The windows were thickly curtained, but when a funereally clad porter admitted my Lord Carlisle and his protégé, Mr. Comyn fairly blinked at the blaze of lights within the house. The porter, who was clothed in black, rather startled him, but on the way upstairs my lord explained that this sombre livery was a whim of Mr. Fox’s, who was given to such conceits.

“Surely, sir, Mr. Fox is not the owner of a gaming-house?” said Mr. Comyn, greatly surprised.

“Oh no, but he’s Vidal’s crony, and Timothy, so I’m told, was in the Duke of Avon’s employ until he discovered in himself a genius for this sort of thing. Thus, you see, what Vidal or his intimates want is all that signifies to Master Timothy.”

They had reached the head of the stairway, and Lord Carlisle led the way into the first of the gaming-rooms. It was somewhat crowded, and was apparently given over to pharaoh and deep basset.

My lord passed through it, exchanging a greeting here and there, and led Mr. Comyn through an archway into a second and smaller apartment. The rattle of dice sounded here, and Mr. Comyn’s eye brightened. There was only one table, and that occupied the centre of the room, and was surrounded by a fair number of onlookers.

“H’m! Vidal’s bank,” grunted Carlisle. “Shouldn’t play if I were you.”

Mr. Comyn perceived my Lord Vidal at the end of the table, a glass at his elbow. His cravat was loosened, and a strand of lightly-powdered hair had escaped the riband that tied it in his neck. He wore a coat of purple velvet, heavily laced, and a flowered waistcoat, one or two of the buttons of which had come undone. He looked pale in the candle-light, and rather more dissipated than usual. He glanced up as Mr. Comyn drew near the table, but his eyes, which seemed unusually brilliant, betrayed no recognition.

Carlisle tugged at Mr. Comyn’s sleeve. “Better play pharaoh,” he muttered under his breath. “Vidal’s in a wild humour by the look of it. See who’s at the table? Oh! you wouldn’t know! Fellow beside Jack Bowling—red-faced fellow in a bag-wig. His name’s Quarles. There’s something of a bone lies between him and the Cub. There’ll be trouble before the morning. Best out of it.”

Mr. Comyn regarded the red-faced gentleman with interest. “But I hardly suppose, my lord, that I could be concerned in the trouble,” he said precisely.

“Oh lord, no! Just some pother over a wench that Vidal snapped from under Quarles’s nose.”

“I apprehend,” said Mr. Comyn, “that most of my Lord Vidal’s quarrels owe their existence to a female.”

He returned to the contemplation of the table. At Vidal’s right hand, Mr. Fox lolled in his chair, busy with a gold toothpick. He raised a languid hand in greeting to Carlisle. “Coming in, my lord? Take the bank?”

A heap of gold and paper lay before Vidal. Carlisle shook his head. “Not I, Fox.”

The Marquis tossed off what remained in his glass. “I’ll throw you for it,” he offered.

“I advise against it, my lard,” one of the players said mincingly. “Vidal has had the devil’s luck all this week.”

“I’m not dicing to-night,” Carlisle replied. “If you have a place at the table, Mr. Comyn here is of a mind to play.”

My lord paused in the act of refilling his glass, and again looked up at Mr. Comyn. “Oh, it’s you, is it?” he said carelessly. “I thought I knew you. Do you want to throw for the bank?”

“I thank your lordship, but I would prefer to throw against the bank,” replied Mr. Comyn, and sat down beside Lord Rupert Alastair.

Lord Carlisle, having done what he could to prevent his protege from joining the table, shrugged fatalistically, and withdrew.

“Raise you to a hundred, gentlemen,” Vidal said, and lay back in his chair, feeling in his capacious coat-pocket for his snuff-box. He pulled it out, and opened it, and took a pinch, flashing a quick look round the table. A gentleman in puce satin, and a very large stock buckle, protested that fifty was deep enough.

Mr. Fox lifted weary eyebrows, and stretched out his hand for Vidal’s snuff-box. He regarded it closely, and remarked with a sigh: “Le Sueur. Email en plain. Very pretty. A hundred, I think you said?” He put it down and picked up the dice-box.

Someone at the other end of the table said that the game went too deep, but was overruled.