"How much does it cost?"
"Twenty-five cents a game."
"My salary is so small that I can't afford it."
"Well, come in at any rate and see the playing."
To this Gerald assented. He had never entered the room and had some curiosity to see it. Accordingly he went in and found a collection of village roughs. Brandon entered a game then being played, and Gerald sat down and looked on.
At one end of the room was a bar, to which the players adjourned at intervals.
"Won't you have something, Gerald?" asked Brandon, whose turn came to treat at the end of the first game.
"No, thank you."
"I won't tell your ma," said his fellow-clerk, with a smile.
"I am not sure that she would care, but I would rather not drink."