play!"

He said deliberately: "You will not only play, but play cleverly; and in
the interim, while dressing, you will reflect how much more agreeable it
is to play cards here than the fool at ten o'clock at night in the
bachelor apartments of your late lamented."

And he entered his room; and his wife, getting blindly to her feet,
every atom of colour gone from lip and cheek, stood rigid, both small
hands clutching the foot-board of the gilded bed.

CHAPTER VI

THE UNEXPECTED

Differences of opinion between himself and Neergard concerning the
ethics of good taste involved in forcing the Siowitha Club matter,
Gerald's decreasing attention to business and increasing intimacy with
the Fane-Ruthven coterie, began to make Selwyn very uncomfortable. The
boy's close relations with Neergard worried him most of all; and though
Neergard finally agreed to drop the Siowitha matter as a fixed policy in
which Selwyn had been expected to participate at some indefinite date,
the arrangement seemed only to cement the man's confidential
companionship with Gerald.

This added to Selwyn's restlessness; and one day in early spring he had
a long conference with Gerald--a most unsatisfactory one. Gerald, for
the first time, remained reticent; and when Selwyn, presuming on the
cordial understanding between them, pressed him a little, the boy turned
sullen; and Selwyn let the matter drop very quickly.

But neither tact nor caution seemed to serve now; Gerald, more and more
engrossed in occult social affairs of which he made no mention to
Selwyn, was still amiable and friendly, even at times cordial and
lovable; but he was no longer frank or even communicative; and Selwyn,
fearing to arouse him again to sullenness or perhaps even to suspicious
defiance, forbore to press him beyond the most tentative advances
toward the regaining of his confidence.

This, very naturally, grieved and mortified the elder man; but what
troubled him still more was that Gerald and Neergard were becoming so
amazingly companionable; for it was easy to see that they had in common
a number of personal interests which he did not share, and that their
silence concerning these interests amounted to a secrecy almost
offensive.

Again and again, coming unexpectedly upon them, he noticed that their
confab ceased with his appearance. Often, too, glances of warning
intelligence passed between them in his presence, which, no doubt, they
supposed were unnotice