“She has not seen her children for five years, and little things forget so soon.”
“Not always,” significantly. “Our little friend has a wonderful memory!”
“No, no; but ordinary children. Sweet is extraordinary. Colonel Sladen has won ever so much money from Captain Waring, and if it pays her passage, for once gambling will have done some good. All the same, I wish he would do something better with his money. Uncle Pelham says it is such a frightful example to other young men.”
“Yes; and he has no luck. He might just as well draw a cheque, and send it to the secretary to distribute among the members, for it is only a loss of time, and would amount to precisely the same thing in the end.”
“Minus the delightful excitement of gambling, you forgot that! It seems too bad to squander money in that way—when there is such poverty and misery everywhere. Even a few pounds can do wonders, and change people’s lives altogether. Sometimes it appears to me that money is in wrong hands—and its owners don’t recognize their responsibilities.”
“A great fortune is a great responsibility,” remarked her companion gravely. “It is so hard to know when to give, and when not to give. I think people with moderate incomes have much the best of it.”
“It is a capital joke, if any one could but hear us—deploring the drawbacks of wealth, you and I—the two poor relations. At least I speak for myself,” with a merry smile.
“And I must speak for myself. I have long wished to tell you something, Miss Gordon. I have rather shirked doing it, because I’m afraid you will be vexed; but——”
The sudden snapping of a twig on the edge of the bank overhanging the road caused him to glance up. There stood a large leopard, in the act of springing; like a flash it alighted just a yard behind them, and then bounded back with poor Ben in its mouth! It all was the work of two seconds.
“Oh, Ben—poor Ben!” shrieked Honor, frantically. “Let us save him; we must save him.”