Langham nodded.
"You have certainly had your little time, Jack, and it's been a perfectly good little time, too! What are you going to do when you are cleaned out?"
"That's part of the puzzle, Marsh, that's the very hell and all of it."
"Well, you have had your fun—lots of it!" said Langham, swabbing his face.
North noticed the embroidered initial in the corner of the handkerchief.
"Fun! Was it fun?" he demanded with sudden heat.
"You took it for fun. Personally I think it was a pretty fair imitation."
"Yes, I took it for fun, or mistook it; that's the pity of it! I can forgive myself for almost everything but having been a fool!"
"That's always a hard dose to swallow," agreed Langham. He was willing to enter into his friend's mood.
"Have you ever tried to swallow it?" asked North.