"Come, that's a good card," said the speaker; "you are in luck's way."
"Oh! I know what I'm about now; we'll have shilling stakes to-night."
"Won't your pretty bride wonder where you are?"
"She'll be taught not to wonder, that's all."
"Has that young hopeful ever turned up?" was the next question, as the cards were shuffled.
"No, and it will be the worse for him when he does."
Silence reigned after this, and it was evident that Joe Skinner thought his mother and Bet were safe in bed.
Bet crept upstairs. At last she heard the clock strike eleven, and then the three men below departed, noiselessly as they came, by the back door, of which Joe Skinner had the key.
Bet pinched herself to keep awake till she heard her grandmother's step at the front of the house. Running down, she opened the front door before there was time to ring.
Mrs. Skinner came in as she had gone out, silent and self-restrained.