the world and your distinguished
acquaintance, I should have gone to my grave believing that my
suspicions were correct. I dare say that I shall make the same mistake
again."

"But do not judge so hastily."

"That I promise."

"Did you learn among other things what Mr. Warrington had done?"

"Yes. A sordid affair. Ordinary peculations that were wasted over
gaming-tables."

Warrington had told her the truth. At least, the story told by others
coincided with his own. But what was it that kept doubt in her mind?
Why should she not be ready to believe what others believed, what the
man himself had confessed? What was it to her that he looked like
Arthur, that he was guilty or innocent?

"And his name?" She wondered if the colonel knew that also.

"Warrington is assumed. His real name is Paul Ellison."

"Paul Ellison." She repeated it slowly. Her voice did not seem her
own. The table, the lights, the faces, all receded and became a blur.

XV

A BIT OF A LARK

Mallow gave Craig one of his favorite cigars. The gambler turned it
over and inspected the carnelian label, realizing that this was
expected of him. Mallow smiled complacently. They might smoke as good
as that at the government-house, but he rather doubted it. Trust a
Britisher to know a good pipe-charge; but his selection of cigars was
seldom to be depended upon.

"Don't see many of these out here," was Craig's comment, and he tucked
away the cigar in a vest pocket.

"They cost me forty-three cents apiece, without duty." The vulgarian's
pleasure lies not in the article itself so much as in the price paid
for it. On the plantation Mallow smoked Burma cheroots because he
really preferred them. There, he drank rye whisky, consorted with his
employees, gambled with them and was not above cheating when he had
them drunk enough. Away from home, however, he was the man of money;
he bought vintage wines when he could, wore silks, jingled the
sovereigns whenever he thought some one might listen, bullied the
servants, all with the childish belief that he was following the
footsteps of aristocracy, hoodwinking no one, not even his kind. "I'm
worth a quarter of a million," he went on. "Luck and plugging did it.
One of these fine days I'm going to sell out and take a whack at that
gay Paris. There's the place to spend your pile. You can't get your
money's worth any place else."

Paris. Craig's thought flew back to the prosperous days