“It is my duty to warn your lordship that if your present rate of expenditure is maintained, your lordship will have no choice in the matter,” said Mr Stoke.
“Nonsense! I don’t deny I am a trifle scorched this year, but I shall come about!” Sherry said, in a tone that forbade further discussion.
But the shocking thought put into his mind by his man of business refused to be quite banished, and actually cost his lordship an hour’s sleep. A heavy plunge on an outsider, backed on the advice of the ubiquitous Jason, did much to raise his spirits, and he told that very safe man at the corner, Jerry Cloves, as he collected his winnings at Tattersall’s, that he had best look out for himself now, as the luck had turned. Jerry grinned, and wished his noble patron the best of good fortune, but fortune still appeared to be a little fickle, for his lordship lost a large sum at Watier’s that very evening, and was so much exasperated that he threatened to forswear macao altogether.
He had barely recovered from the gloomy reflections provoked by this unsuccessful evening when he received a visit from the Honourable Prosper Verelst, who caught him on the steps of his house, just as he was preparing to saunter down to White’s, and bore him inexorably back into the house.
“For you need not suppose, my boy, that I’ve put myself to the trouble of coming to see you only to have you slip off like that!” said Prosper.
“What the deuce brings you to see me?” asked his undutiful nephew, ushering him into the library behind the dining-room.
“Fond of you, Sherry: always was!” replied Prosper, lowering himself into a deep armchair. “If you have some of that madeira left which I gave you, I’ll take a glass.”
His lordship tugged at the bellpull. “That’s all very well, but you don’t have to come to see me just when I was about to join a party of friends!” he objected.
“Yes, I do, because you’re never at home,” said Prosper. “How badly were you dipped at Watier’s last night, Sherry?”
Sherry swung round to face him. “What the devil has it to do with you if I was, Prosper?” he demanded dangerously.