"You can't prove that I cheated," said Hay, desperately.
"Yes, we can," said George. "I, and Miss Qian, and Tempest all saw you cheat, and Miss Qian has the marked cards."
"But don't expose me. I—I—" Hay broke down and turned away with a look of despair on his face. He cursed himself inwardly for having ventured to cheat when things, by the marriage with Maud Krill, would have soon been all right for him. "Miss Qian," he cried in a tone of agony, "give me another chance."
Aurora, playing her own game, of which the two young men were ignorant, appeared to repent. She beckoned to Miss Stably. "Take Mr. Hay into the dining-room," she said, "and I'll see what I can do. But you try and bolt, Hay, and the news will be all over the West End to-morrow."
"I'll stop," said Hay, whose face was colorless, and, without another word, he followed the sheep-dog into the dining-room in an agony of mind better imagined than described. Then Miss Qian turned her attention to her guests:
"See here, boys," she said frankly, "this is a dirty business, and I don't want to be mixed up with it."
"But Hay should be exposed," insisted Sandal; "he's been rooking me, I do believe, for months."
"Serve you jolly well right," said Aurora, heartlessly. "I warned you again and again against him. But if there's a row, where do I come in?"
"It won't hurt you," said Tempest, eagerly.
"Oh, won't it? Gambling in my flat, and all the rest of it. You boys may think me free and easy but I'm straight. No one can say a word against me. I'm not going to be made out an adventuress and a bad woman for the sake of that swindler, Hay. So you boys will just hold your tongues."