llowed to
ruin you and Hetta? It can't go on long.'

'You wouldn't have me throw him over.'

'I think he is throwing you over. And then it is so thoroughly
dishonest,--so ungentlemanlike! I don't understand how it goes on from
day to day. I suppose you don't supply him with ready money?'

'He has had a little.'

Roger frowned angrily. 'I can understand that you should provide him
with bed and food, but not that you should pander to his vices by
giving him money.' This was very plain speaking, and Lady Carbury
winced under it. 'The kind of life that he is leading requires a large
income of itself. I understand the thing, and know that with all I
have in the world I could not do it myself.'

'You are so different.'

'I am older of course,--very much older. But he is not so young that he
should not begin to comprehend. Has he any money beyond what you give
him?'

Then Lady Carbury revealed certain suspicions which she had begun to
entertain during the last day or two. 'I think he has been playing.'

'That is the way to lose money,--not to get it.' said Roger.

'I suppose somebody wins,--sometimes.'

'They who win are the sharpers. They who lose are the dupes. I would
sooner that he were a fool than a knave.'

'O Roger, you are so severe!'

'You say he plays. How would he pay, were he to lose?'

'I know nothing about it. I don't even know that he does play; but I
have reason to think that during the last week he has had money at his
command. Indeed I have seen it. He comes home at all manner of hours
and sleeps late. Yesterday I went into his room about ten and did not
wake him. There were notes and gold lying on his table;--ever so much.'

'Why did you not take them?'

'What; rob my own boy?'

'When you tell me that you are absolutely in want of money to pay your
own bills, and that he has not hesitated to take yours from you! Why
does he not repay you what he has borrowed?'

'Ah, indeed;--why not? He ought to if he has it. And there were papers
there;--I.O.U.'s signed by other men.'

'You looked at them.'

'I saw as much as that. It is not that I am curious but one does feel
about one's own son. I think he has bought another horse. A groom came
here and said something about it to the servants.'

'Oh dear oh dear!'

'If you could only induce him to stop the gambling! Of course it is
very bad whether he wins or loses,--though I am sure that Felix would do
nothing unfair. Nobody ever said that of