"And I shall try all my life long to show you how I appreciate the trust. I understand so well how you feel. I would not alarm you for all the world about your position here, but—but there are some things that I—I would not have you learn. One of them is to play poker."
"And yet you came here to play with me?"
"I have never seen you. I did not know you. I would not sit down at a poker-table with you now for—for my right arm."
He said it so earnestly, so sincerely that she started.
"Is it so wrong, then?" she asked, quickly. "Is it so great a sin?"
He appeared embarrassed.
"I hardly know how to answer you," he returned gently. "It is a sin in a sense. It is gambling, and all gambling is sinful. I would not have you understand me that Jessica or Mrs. Chalmers is doing anything criminal, but—I should so much prefer that you would not join them."
"And yet you do it?"
He flushed crimson.
"My dear child, my little friend, you will learn that men are permitted acts which the world does not allow to women. I am not going to argue with you about the right or wrong of it. There is a law which is as binding as the Christian oath, and that is the law of custom. The world has a code of its own, and right or wrong, we must follow it. I will promise you one thing, however, that is, that if you will never play a game of poker, a game of anything that involves money, I never will either. Will you do it?"