"He is just what he appears to be. He has but one weakness—he is excessively fond of draw."
"Yes," thought Oscar, "he is playing a big game of draw with me, and he expects to draw me into some sort of a web. Well, he may succeed; we can't tell, Mr. Spider."
Oscar did not speak out just what he thought, but said:
"I am partial to a little game myself under the proper conditions."
"What do you consider the proper conditions?"
"My companions in the game gentlemen, who, like myself, play for the sake of amusement, and not to win for the sake of the money."
"Then Girard is your man, and I think he has taken a great fancy to you, Dunne. He is a queer fellow in some things, but when he takes a fancy to a man, he clings to him, and is always ready to do a good turn."
"That is a good trait."
"Do you know, or rather would you suspect, that he was a poor orphan, and the architect of his own great fortune?"
"No, he acts to me like a man born to wealth."