“You’ve been playing the old soldier, young man. Took me in completely. But I’m a woman, and I always, always find out.”
She shook her finger at him and stood staring across the high wall that was the foot of the bed. As she stared she kept on nodding, like the wife of a mandarin who had picked up the habit from her husband. Two fingers, spread apart, were pressed against the corners of her mouth to prevent it from widening to a smile.
“Humph!” she gave a jab to a hairpin which helped to fasten the knob at the back of her head. “Humph! I’ve been nicely had.” Then to Teddy: “We’ll get you well slowly. Now I’m going to fetch your clothes and you’ve got to dress.”
Clad as far as his shirt and knickerbockers, with a counterpane rolled about him, he was carried downstairs.
In the long dilapidated room that they entered the thin and the fat man were playing cards. They were too absorbed to notice that any one had entered.
“What d’you bet?” demanded the fat man.
“Ten thousand,” Mr. Hughes answered promptly.
“I’ll see you and raise you ten thousand. What’ve you got?”
Mr. Hughes threw down three aces; the fat man exposed a full house. “You’re twenty thousand down, Mr. Ooze.”
“Twenty thousand what?” asked Mrs. Sheerug contemptuously.