The young man rose with a look of something like consternation on his face and followed Sotty. The thing was done quietly, and all those around the tables were too much absorbed in the game to pay much attention.
“Look here, my boy,” said Mellish, when they were alone, “who brought you to this place?”
“I guess,” said the lad, with an expression of resentment, “I’m old enough to go where I like without being brought.”
“Oh, certainly, certainly,” said Mellish, diplomatically, knowing how much very young men dislike being accused of youth, “but I like to know all visitors here. You couldn’t get in unless you came with someone known at the door. Who vouched for you?”
“See here, Mr. Mellish,” said the youth angrily, “what are you driving at? If your doorkeepers don’t know their own business why don’t you speak to them about it? Are you going to have me turned out?”
“Nothing of the sort,” said Mellish, soothingly, putting his hand in a fatherly manner on the young fellow’s shoulder. “Don’t mistake my meaning. The fact that you are here shows that you have a right to be here. We’ll say no more about that. But you take my advice and quit the business here and now. I was a gambler before you were born, although I don’t gamble any more. Take the advice of a man who knows. It doesn’t pay.”
“It seems to have paid you reasonably well.”
“Oh, I don’t complain. It has its ups and downs like all businesses. Still, it doesn’t pay me nearly as well as perhaps you think, and you can take my word that in the long run it won’t pay you at all. How much money have you got?”
“Enough to pay if I lose,” said the boy impudently; then seeing the look of pain that passed over Mellish’s face, he added more civilly:
“I have three or four hundred dollars.”