CHAMBERLAIN. Is it?
JESSE COLLINGS. Don't you think so yourself?
CHAMBERLAIN. Not now. I did once.
JESSE COLLINGS. You always said so.
CHAMBERLAIN. I said it as long as I believed it: till the stars in their courses turned against me. That broke me, Collings. If I could have gone on having faith in myself, I shouldn't be—as I am now.
JESSE COLLINGS. But what—what made you lose it?
CHAMBERLAIN. Can't you guess?
(Collings shakes his head, remains valiantly incredulous; and there is a pause.)
I saw somebody else—whose cards weren't so good—playing with a better hand. It was the hand beat me. My head's all right still, though it sleeps. But I've lost my hand. Look at it! (Again the gesture illustrative of defeat.) Threw it away. You know who I mean?
JESSE COLLINGS (_cautiously, rather reluctantly). I suppose I do.