"'Perhaps!' 'Not always!' Great Scott, I'll have a fiver each way on both those. Considering you've treated me like a frightful kid practically ever since you've known me, I call that pretty rich! Why, what about this very night, when I asked you for a few pounds?"
"It was only the thought that you had been gambling—"
"Gambling! How about palming off faked diamonds on Aunt Julia for a gamble?"
"A game of skill, surely?" murmured Jimmy.
"I have been thinking the matter over," said Sir Thomas, "and, if you really need the—was it not fifty pounds?"
"It was twenty," said his lordship. "And I don't need it. Keep it. You'll want all you can save for a new necklace."
His fingers closed on the door-handle.
"Spencer, stop!"
"Well?"
"We must talk this over. We must not be hasty."