ir was kept in its place as a _bang_
by numerous hair-pins, would have passed for a girl anywhere. Nobody had
challenged him or his age as he passed in with Daisy, who was well known
by this time, and around whom and her companion, a crowd of curious ones
gathered and watched them as they played, cautiously at first, for that
was Daisy's style; then as Ted's Irish blood began to tingle with
excitement, more recklessly, until he whispered to her:

"Play high. There's no such thing as _second hand low_ here. Double your
stakes and I'll be your backer."

And Daisy played high and won nearly every time, while the lookers-on
marveled at her luck and wondered by what strange intuition she knew
just where to place her gold. For days the pair known to the crowd as
"_Les cousines Anglaises_," played side by side, while Lord Hardy
maintained his incognito perfectly, though some of the spectators
commented on the size of his hands and wondered why he always kept them
gloved. And Ted enjoyed it immensely, and thought it the jolliest lark
he ever had, and did not care a _sous_ how much he lost if Daisy only
won. But at last her star began to wane, and her gold-pieces were swept
off rapidly by the remorseless _croupier_, until fifty pounds went at
one stroke, and then Daisy turned pale, and said to her companion:

"Don't you think we'd better stop? I believe Satan himself is standing
behind me with his evil eye! Do look and see who is there!"

"Nobody but your husband, upon my soul," Ted whispered, after glancing
back at Archie, who, with folded arms and a cloud on his brow, stood
watching the game and longing to take his wife away. "Nobody but your
husband, who looks black as his Satanic majesty. But never you mind, my
darlint," he continued, adopting the dialect of his country. "Play high,
and it's meself'll make good all you lose. Faith and be jabers they
can't break Ted Hardy."

Thus reassured, Daisy played high, and her luck returned, and when she
left the hall that night she was richer by a thousand pounds than when
she entered it.

The next day the McPhersons left Monte Carlo, accompanied by Lord Hardy,
who went with them to Genoa, and Turin, and Milan, and the Italian
lakes, and Venice, where he said good-by, for he was going to Rome,
while they were to turn their faces homeward, stopping for a few weeks
at Paris, which Daisy said she must see before shutting herself up at
stupid old Stoneleigh, which looked very uninvi