He took out his wallet, and drew out a variety of papers, to which Philip’s signature was attached.
Then he sat down at a table, took a pencil from his pocket, set the different sums on paper, and added them up deliberately. All this was humbug, for he had added it up before Philip came in, and knew to a dollar how much it amounted to. Philip stood by, feeling miserably uncomfortable, while the reckoning went on.
“Really,” said Congreve, looking up at length, in assumed surprise, “I had no idea it amounted to so much!”
“How much does it come to?” questioned his wretched dupe.
“One hundred and thirty-six dollars,” was the calm response.
“A hundred and thirty-six dollars!” gasped Philip.
“Yes; surprising, isn’t it? Little sums count up, you know. However, we’ve had some fun out of it, haven’t we?”
“I don’t see where the fun comes in,” said Philip, bitterly. “Of course, it’s fun for you to win so much.”
“You won some of the time, Phil. Think how many games we have had, and how exciting it was. You play a good deal better game than you did.”
“But I have lost a big pile of money.”