"They were my mother's."
"I know, I know, but z——ds' You wouldn't have me fail Dicky Claribut?"
"But sure they were not worth——"
"Oons! I pledged my best buckles to him; the candlesticks were for his gentleman. I'm devilish sorry, my dear, but, 'faith, ’twas not to be avoided, and here's young Charles! Charles, my boy, never play, or, if you do, play deep and win."
"Don't put such ideas into the boy's mind," said his mother anxiously.
"Oddslife, my dear, be very sure the ideas are there already."
"How can you have the heart to persist when you know...."
"The heart, madam?" interrupted his father. "Let me tell you that the hearts of the Lovelys are all of a piece—and 'tis cardboard."
Our hero came to his elegant self with a start and was back in Curtain Wells with hot eyelids, and thoughts continually racing over the flowery wall-paper.
It was not long, however, before he was once more in pursuit of the past.