"Nay, nay!" he muttered, "I've lost. Th' old man's lost, after all!"
And he returned to the table, having made a sensation in the room.
Helen was in paradise. "I'm surprised you were ready to toss, uncle," said she. "However, it's all right; we can get the luggage to-morrow. It's at Crewe."
"How dost know it's at Crewe?" he demanded.
"Because I had it labelled for Crewe. You were silly to imagine that I was going to leave you. But I thought I'd just leave nothing undone to make you give way. I made sure I was beaten. I made sure I should have to knuckle under. And now you are goose enough to toss, and you've lost, you've lost! Hurrah!" She clapped her hands softly.
"Do ye mean to tell me," Jimmy thundered, "as ye've been playing a game wi' me all this time?"
"Of course." She had no shame.
"And bought th' steamer-ticket without meaning to go?"
"Well," she said, "it's no good half-playing when you're playing for high stakes. Besides, what's fifteen pounds?"
He did not let her into the secret that he also had ordered the luggage to be labelled for Crewe. They returned to the Five Towns the following morning. And by mutual tacit agreement they never spoke of that excursion to Scotland.