"What had Silverbridge to do with it?"
"Nothing, sir. I wrote to Silverbridge because I didn't know what to do. I knew he would stand to me."
"Who is to stand to either of you if you go on thus I do not know." To this Gerald of course made no reply, but an idea came across his mind that he knew who would stand both to himself and his brother. "How did Silverbridge mean to get the money?"
"He said he would ask you. But I thought that I ought to tell you."
"Is that all?"
"All what, sir?"
"Are there other debts?" To this Gerald made no reply. "Other gambling debts."
"No, sir;—not a shilling of that kind. I have never played before."
"Does it ever occur to you that going on at that rate you may very soon lose all the fortune that will ever come to you? You were not yet of age and you lost three thousand four hundred pounds at cards to a man whom you probably knew to be a professed gambler!" The Duke seemed to wait for a reply, but poor Gerald had not a word to say. "Can you explain to me what benefit you proposed to yourself when you played for such stakes as that?"
"I hoped to win back what I had lost."