time, a letter to Reverend
Mother; but she was half glad of an excuse to put it away unfinished.
She too was in a wrapper, with her shining hair over her shoulders, but
she suggested a St. Ursula rather than a Medusa. There was no
comfortable chair in the room, but she drew the only one whose legs
could be depended upon, in front of a dying wood fire for Lady Dauntrey.

Eve sat for a few moments brushing her hair in a lazy, aimless way, and
staring at the red logs. "Perhaps," she said at last, "I shall have to
cheer _you_ up, though, when you've heard what I've come for. Might as
well out with it, I suppose! I know _I_ can't bear having had news
'broken' to me. My husband told you he was seedy, didn't he?--and hadn't
meant to play, so he'd banked all the money. He hadn't the courage, poor
chap, to tell you what really happened. He's simply sick over it, so I
offered to see you. In a way, it was true, what he said. The bank _has_
got the money, only--it's the Casino bank. Dauntrey had an awful debacle
to-day, the first time since he's been playing for you, and lost
everything; not only your capital, of course, but his own too. It's your
money he's so sick about, though. He could stand the loss of his own,
though it's a blow, and I don't quite know what we shall do. But to lose
yours! He's almost off his head. If it weren't for me, and my saying
you'd forgive him, I believe he'd blow his brains out."

"Oh, don't speak of anything so horrible!" Mary cried. "Of course I
forgive him."

"He's afraid you may think he has juggled away your money. When you
asked him for it to-night he was already wondering how you'd take the
loss; but your proposal coming suddenly like that bowled him over, and
he made an excuse to put off the evil hour. What a weird coincidence you
should have wanted your capital back the very day he'd lost the lot!
He's so sorry you didn't think of it yesterday; for then it would have
been safe in your hands now, unless you'd lost it yourself, which I
can't help thinking, my dear, you probably _would_, the way things were
going with you before."

"I daresay I should have lost the money if he hadn't," said Mary kindly.
In her heart, she wished that she had been given the chance, as at least
she would then have had some amusement, before the money was gone. And
certainly it was an odd coincidence that the loss should have happened
just before she had suggested playing for herself again. She could not
help r