gone to tell the same tale
of you that you think was told of her? Is this all?"

"Would that it were!"

"Well, go on, my dear. Was she at the ball?"

"Surrounded by all that set. I was long in getting near her, and
then she said her card was full; and when I made some desperate
entreaty, she said, in an undertone that stabbed me by its very
calmness, 'After what has passed to-day, the less we meet the
better.' And she moved away, so as to cut me off from another
word."

"After what had passed! Was it the parting with the stone?"

"Not only. I got a few words with Lady Tyrrell. She told me that
early impressions had given Lena a kind of fanatical horror of
betting, and that she had long ago made a sort of vow against a
betting man. Lady Tyrrell said she had laughed at it, but had no
notion it was seriously meant; and I--I never even heard of it!"

"Nor are you a betting man, my Frank."

"Ay! mother, you have not heard all."

"You are not in a scrape, my boy?"

"Yes, I am. You see I lost my head after the pebble transaction. I
couldn't stand small talk, or bear to go near Raymond, so I got
among some other fellows with Sir Harry--"

"And excitement and distress led you on?"

"I don't know what came over me. I could not stand still for fear I
should feel. I must be mad on something. Then, that mare of
Duncombe's, poor fellow, seemed a personal affair to us all; and Sir
Harry, and a few other knowing old hands, went working one up, till
betting higher and higher seemed the only way of supporting
Duncombe, besides relieving one's feelings. I know it was being no
end of a fool; but you haven't felt it, mother!"

"And Sir Harry took your bets?"

"One must fare and fare alike," said Frank.

"How much have you lost?"

"I've lost Lena, that's all I know," said the poor boy; but he
produced his book, and the sum appalled him. "Mother," he said in a
broken voice, "there's no fear of its happening again. I can never
feel like this again. I know it is the first time one of your sons
has served you so, and I can't even talk of sorrow, it seems all
swallowed up in the other matter. But if you will help me to meet
it, I will pay you back ten or twenty pounds every quarter."

"I think I can, Frankie. I had something in hand towards my own
possible flitting. Here is the key of my desk. Bring me my
banker's book and my cheque book."

"Mother! mother!" he cried, catching her hand and kissing it,