★ 20 ★::A Gentleman of Leisure
A Lesson in Piquet
Lord Dreever, meanwhile, having left the waterside, a cigarette, and to make a of the grounds. He with the world. Molly’s in the with Jimmy did not trouble him. He had other sorrows. One is at one’s best and when one has been by a uncle into the girl one loves and to another to one is indifferent. Something of a one’s on life in such circumstances. Moreover, Lord Dreever was not by nature an man, but, his position as he walked along, he himself it was not a little unheroic. He came to the that it was.
Of course, Uncle Thomas make it for him if he kicked—that was the trouble. If only he had even, say, a of thousand a year of his own, he might make a for it. But, it! Uncle Tom cut off to such a extent, if there was trouble, that he would have to go on at Dreever indefinitely, without so much as a to call his own. Imagination at the prospect. In the and autumn, when there was shooting, his was not to at the home of his fathers. But all the year round! Better a the than a one in the country in the winter.
“But, by gad,” his lordship, “if I had as much as a couple—yes, it! a of thousand a year, I’d it and ask Katie to me, if I wouldn’t!”
He walked on, at his cigarette. The more he the situation, the less he liked it. There was only one spot in it, and that was the that now money must surely a less tight. Extracting the from Sir Thomas had been like back-teeth out of a bulldog. But now, on the of this engagement, surely he might be to to some extent.
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His was just whether, if approached in a mood, the other might not something big, when a large, warm rain-drop on his hand. From the about came an ever-increasing patter. The sky was leaden.
He looked him for shelter. He had the rose-garden in the of his perambulations. At the end was a summer-house. He up his coat-collar and ran.
As he near he a slow and dirge-like from the interior. Plunging in out of breath, just as the began, he Hargate seated at the little table with an on his face. The table was with cards. Hargate had not yet been to his wrist, having the of to play billiards.
“Halloa, Hargate!” said his lordship. “Isn’t it down, by Jove!”
Hargate up, without speaking, and his attention to the cards once more. He took one from the pack in his left hand, looked at it, for a moment, as if on the table it would produce the most effect, and put it upwards. Then he moved another card from the table and put it on top of the other one. Throughout the performance he painfully.
His him with annoyance.
“That looks exciting,” he said disparagingly. “What are you playing at? Patience?”
Hargate again—this time without looking up.
“Oh, don’t there looking like a frog,” said Lord Dreever irritably. “Talk, man.”
Hargate up the cards and to them in a manner, the while.
“Oh, stop it!” said his lordship.
Hargate nodded, and stopped.
“Look here,” said Lord Dreever, “this is me stiff. Let’s have a game at something—anything to pass away the time. Hang this rain! We shall be up here till dinner at this rate. Ever played piquet? I teach you in five minutes.”
A look almost of came into Hargate’s face—the look of one who sees a performed his eyes. For years he had been using all the large stock of at his to to play with him, and here was this 133admirable man, this pearl among men, positively to teach him the game. It was too much happiness. What had he done to this? He as a toil-worn lion might if some antelope, of making its bee-line for the horizon, were to up and its his jaws.
“I— I shouldn’t mind being the idea,” he said.
He while Lord Dreever at some length the which the game of piquet. Every now and then he asked a question. It was that he was to the idea of the game.
“What is re-piquing?” he asked, as his paused.
“It’s like this,” said his lordship, returning to his lecture.
“Yes, I see now,” said the neophyte.
They playing. Lord Dreever, as was only to be in a teacher and student, the two hands. Hargate the next.
“I’ve got the of it all right now,” he said complacently. “It’s a of game. Make it more exciting, don’t you think, if we played for something?”
“All right,” said Lord Dreever slowly; “if you like.”
He would not have it himself, but after all, it! if the man asked for it—— It was not his fault if the of a hand should have the the that he all that there was to be about piquet. Of course, was a game where skill was to win. But—— After all, Hargate had of money. He it.
“All right,” said his again. “How much?”
“Something moderate. Ten a hundred?”
There is no that his ought, at this suggestion, to have the novice’s that ten a hundred was moderate. He that it was possible for a player to four hundred points in a twenty minutes’ game, and for him to two hundred. But he let the thing go.
“Very well,” he said.
Twenty minutes later Hargate was looking at the score-sheet. “I you eighteen shillings,” he said. “Shall I pay you now, or shall we settle up in a after we’ve finished?”
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“What about stopping now?” said Lord Dreever. “It’s out.”
“No; let’s go on. I’ve nothing to do till dinner, and I don’t you have.”
His lordship’s one last effort.
“You’d much stop, you know, Hargate, really,” he said. “You can a at this game.”
“My dear Dreever,” said Hargate stiffly, “I can look after myself, thanks. Of course, if you think you are too much, by all means——”
“Oh, if you don’t mind,” said his lordship, outraged, “I’m only too pleased. Only I you.”
“I’ll it in mind. By the way, we start, to make it a a hundred?”
Lord Dreever not to play for a a hundred, or, indeed, to play for money at all; but after his adversary’s it was for a of to admit the fact. He nodded.
“About time, I fancy,” said Hargate, looking at his watch an hour later, “that we were going in to dress for dinner.”
His no reply. He was in thought.
“Let’s see, that’s twenty you me, isn’t it?” Hargate. “Shocking luck you had.”
They out into the rose-garden.
“Jolly after the rain,” said Hargate, who to have a patch. “Freshened up.”
His did not appear to have noticed it. He to be of something else. His air was and abstracted.
“There’s just time,” said Hargate, looking at his watch again, “for a stroll. I want to have a talk with you.”
“Oh!” said Lord Dreever.
His air did not his feelings. He looked pensive, and he was pensive. It was awkward, this twenty business.
Hargate was him covertly. It was his to know other people’s business, and he that Lord Dreever was impecunious, and for on a uncle. For the success of the he was about to make he on this fact.
“Who’s this man Pitt?” asked Hargate.
“Oh, of mine,” said his lordship. “Why?”
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“I can’t the fellow.”
“I think he’s a good chap,” said his lordship. “In fact,” Jimmy’s Good Samaritanism, “I know he is. Why don’t you like him?”
“I don’t know. I don’t.”
“Oh!” said his indifferently. He was in no mood to to the and of other men.
“Look here, Dreever,” said Hargate, “I want you to do something for me—I want you to Pitt out of the place.”
Lord Dreever him curiously.
“Eh?” he said. Hargate his remark.
“You to have out a programme for me,” said Lord Dreever.
“Get him out of it,” Hargate vehemently. Jimmy’s against had him hard. He was the of Tantalus. The was full of men of the to he most resorted—easy marks, every one—and here he was, through Jimmy, like a battleship. It was maddening. “Make him go. You him here. He doesn’t to stop indefinitely, I suppose? If you left, he’d have to, too. What you must do is to go to London to-morrow. You can easily make some excuse. He’ll have to go with you. Then you can him in London and come back. That’s what you must do.”
A pink might have been to spread itself over Lord Dreever’s face. He to look like an angry rabbit. He had not a great of in his composition, but the of the role which Hargate was sketching out for him what he had to its bottom.
Talking on, Hargate managed to add the last straw.
“Of course,” he said, “that money you to me at piquet—what was it? Twenty? Twenty pounds, wasn’t it? Well, we would look on that as cancelled, of course. That will be all right.”
His exploded.
“Will it?” he cried, pink to the ears. “Will it, by George? I’ll pay you every of it to-morrow—and then you can clear out, of Pitt. What do you take me for, I should like to know?”
“A fool, if you my offer.”
“I’ve a good mind to give you a most kicking.”
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“I shouldn’t try if I were you. It’s not the of game you’d at. Better to piquet.”
“If you think I can’t pay you your money—”
“I do. But if you can, so much the better. Money is always useful.”
“I may be a in some ways——”
“You it, my dear man.”
“But I’m not a cad.”
“You’re rosy, Dreever. Wrath is good for the complexion.”
“And if you think you can me, you a mistake in your life.”
“Yes, I did,” said Hargate, “when I you had some of intelligence. But if it you any to like the lead in a melodrama, by all means do. Personally, I shouldn’t have the game would be the candle. But if your of you to pay the twenty pounds, all right. You mentioned to-morrow? That’ll me. So we’ll let it go at that.”
He walked off, Lord Dreever with that which comes to the weak man who for once has determination. He that he must not go from his stand-point. That money would have to be paid, and on the morrow. Hargate was the of man who could, and would, make it for him if he failed. A of was not a thing to be with.
But he safe. He he the money when he pleased. It showed, he philosophically, how out of good. His misfortune, the engagement, would, as it were, the loss, for it was to that Sir Thomas, having his ends accomplished, and being in a mood in consequence, would not be to a for a twenty pounds.
He on into the hall. He and capable. He had Hargate the there was in him. He was Spennie Dreever, the man of blood and iron, the man with it was best not to trifle. But it was really, come to think of it, lucky that he was to Molly. He from the idea of attempting, by that fact, to twenty from Sir Thomas for a card debt.
In the he met Saunders.
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“I have been looking for your lordship,” said the butler.
“Eh? Well, here I am.”
“Just so, your lordship. Miss McEachern me with this note to deliver to you in the event of her not being able to see you dinner personally, your lordship.”
“Right-O. Thanks.”
He started to go upstairs, opening the as he went. What the girl be to him about? Surely she wasn’t going to start sending him love-letters or any of that rot? Deuced difficult it would be to play up to that of thing.
He stopped on the landing to read the note, and at the line his fell. The to the ground.
“Oh, my aunt!” he moaned, at the banisters. “Now I am in the soup!”
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