“Certainly. Give yourself no anxiety.”
Then he drew me aside, and asked me if I could let him have a hundred pounds.
“It is for Grace,” he said, “she is short of money; and so am I,” he added with a laugh.
I gave him the money, and we broke up for the night.
Sydney and I walked home in company, excusing ourselves from the others. It was a fine night, and we lit our cigars, and walked on for a while in silence, which Sydney was the first to break.
“I wanted your company badly,” he said; “my mind is troubled.”
“I am your friend, Sydney,” I said.
He returned the pressure of my hand. “Thank you, Fred. My mind is troubled about Mr. Pelham. There is no reason why he should not win from me as easily as, with luck on my side, I might win from him. But I am not satisfied. It appears to me that the numbers he backed and won upon were the numbers he intended to back and win upon. If so, it denotes design. How does it strike you?”
“With you as banker, I will back numbers 5 and 24,” I replied, “and will undertake to win a fortune of you in an hour or two. Always supposing that the wheel is the same as it was to-night.”
“It struck me as strange,” he said thoughtfully; “until to-night my suspicions have not been excited. Had any of you won my money, I should have thought less of it. You were trying the wheel as I turned it, after play was over. Confirm or destroy the impression on my mind.”