Half an hour's drive brought them to the privacy of their hotel rooms and as quickly as they entered them, John turned on his brother like a lion brought to bay.
"How dared you," he said in a low, hard voice, "how dared you let me find you in such a place?"
"
I was with gentlemen playing a quiet game. You had no right to disturb me."
"You were playing with thieves and blackguards. There was not a gentleman in the room—no, not one."
"John, take care what you say."
"A man is no better than the company he keeps. Go with rascals and you will be counted one of them. Yes, and so you ought to be. I am ashamed of you!"
"I did not ask you to come into my company. I did not want you. It was most interfering of you. Yes, John, I call it impudently interfering. I gave way to you this time to prevent a police scene, but I will never do it again! Never!"
"You will never go into such a den of iniquity again. Never! Mind that! The dead and the living both will block your way. We Hattons have been honest men in all our generations. Sons of the soil, taking our living from the land on which we lived in some way or other—never before from dirty cards in dirty hands and shuffled about in roguery, treachery, and robbery. I feel defiled by breathing the same air with such a crowd of card-sharpers and scoundrels."
"I say they were good honest gentlemen. Sir Thomas Leland was there, and——"