"What luck! I was having all my mail sent direct to Mentone, where I spent the winter. Say, what do you think?"
"About what?"
"Won five thousand at Monte Carlo in one play."
"Pounds?" exclaimed Bennington.
"Lord, no!—dollars."
"Ah! But of course you went back and lost it?" ironically.
"On the contrary, I've never staked a dollar since. Gambling was never a habit of mine, though I dare say the moral side of the subject would not have held me back. Simply, I know that the gambler always loses, and the banker always wins, in the end. Common sense told me to quit, and I did. I brought my letter of credit home practically intact."
"You used to play poker," dubiously.
"Poker isn't gambling. It's surreptitiously lending money to your friends."
"You were always good at definitions," sighed Bennington.