“I know that it is very wrong and sinful,” she said solemnly.
“Thanky. I'll put that in my pipe an' smoke it! I'm very wrong and sinful, I am given to understand.”
“Why, I didn't mean you so much,” she faltered, perturbed by this sudden charge of the enemy. “I meant the practice.”
“Oh, I know that I'm a sinner in more ways 'n one; but I didn't know that you were a lady-preacher.”
“You mean that it is none of my business——”
“You ought to be so glad of that,” he retorted.
She maintained a silence that might have suggested a degree of offended pride, and she was truly humiliated that her vaunted hazel eyes had so signally failed to work their wonted charm. As they strolled back together up the steep path to the hotel he seemed either unobservant or uncaring, so impassive were his manners, and she was aware that her demonstration had resulted in giving him information which he could not otherwise have gained. Later, she was nettled to notice that he had utilized it in prosaic fashion, for that night no lights flared late from the casino.
The gamesters, informed that rumors were a-wing, had betaken themselves elsewhere. A small smoking-room in the hotel proper seemed less obnoxious to suspicion in the depleted condition of the guest-list, since autumn was now approaching. After eleven o'clock the coterie would scarcely be subject to interruption, and there they gathered as the hour waxed late. The cards were duly dealt, the draw was on, when suddenly the door opened and old Mr. Whitmel, his favorite meerschaum in his hand and a sheaf of newly arrived journals, entered with the evident intention of a prolonged stay. A “standpatter” seemed hardly so assured as before he encountered the dim, surprised gaze, but the old clergyman was esteemed a good sort, and he ventured on a reminder:
“You have been here before, haven't you, Mr. Whitmel? Saw a deal of this sort of thing in the army!” And he rattled the chips significantly.
“Used to see that sort of thing in the army? Yes, yes, indeed—more than I wanted to see—very much more!”