edom with which they had
greeted her.

"I met de Chavasse in town to-day," said Lord Walterton, over his
shoulder before he mixed with the crowd.

"Yes! he will be here to-night," she rejoined. Sir James Overbury also
made a casual remark, but it was evident that the intention and purpose
of these gay gentlemen was not the courteous entertainment of their
hostess. Like so many men of all times and all nations in this world,
they were ready enough to enjoy what she provided for them--the illicit
pastime which they could not get elsewhere--but they despised her for
giving it them, and cared naught for the heavy risks she ran in keeping
up this house for their pleasure.

CHAPTER XV

A GAME OF PRIMERO

At a table in the immediate center of the room a rotund gentleman in
doublet and breeches of cinnamon brown taffeta and voluminous lace cuffs
at the wrists was presiding over a game of Spanish primero.

A simple game enough, not difficult of comprehension, yet vastly
exciting, if one may form a judgment of its qualities through watching
the faces of the players.

The rotund gentleman dealt a card face downwards to each of his
opponents, who then looked at their cards and staked on them, by pushing
little piles of gold or silver forward.

Then the dealer turned up his own card, and gave the amount of the
respective stakes to those players whose cards were of higher value than
his own, whilst sweeping all other moneys to swell his own pile.

A simple means, forsooth, of getting rid of any superfluity of cash.

"Art winning, Endicott?" queried Lord Walterton as, he stood over the
other man, looking down on the game.

Endicott shrugged his fat shoulders, and gave an enigmatic chuckle.

"I pay King and Ace only," he called out imperturbably, as he turned up
a Queen.

Most of the stakes came to swell his own pile, but he passed a handful
of gold to a hollow-eyed youth who sat immediately opposite to him, and
who clutched at the money with an eager, trembling grasp.

"You have all the luck to-night, Segrave," he said with an oily smile
directed at the winner.

"Make your game, gentlemen," he added almost directly, as he once more
began to deal.

"I pay knave upwards!" he declared, turning up the ten of clubs.

"Mine is the ten of hearts," quoth one of the players.

"Ties pay the bank," quoth Endicott imperturbably.

"Mine is a queen," said Segrave in a hollow tone of voice.

Endicott with a comprehe