"You are not very long after us. I conclude you found your friends were quite safe."
She had gathered from the garrulous Tommy what she had not known before, that Spencer was next in succession to the earldom, also that Lord Southleigh had a very pretty daughter, who was an accomplished young sportswoman, a daring rider to hounds, an adept at golf, fishing, and other pastimes of a strenuous nature.
She had pricked up her ears at mention of the cousin. Artfully she pumped Tommy as to whether there was any tender feeling between the relatives.
But Tommy could give no information on this point. Spencer was a very reticent man about his private affairs, he explained. Personally, he should not consider him particularly susceptible to female influence. But he had heard that the old earl, who had a shockingly weak heart, and was likely to go off at any moment, would have viewed a marriage between the cousins with favour.
She mused over his words. He did not think him particularly susceptible to female influence. And yet she was sure there was admiration, open, undisguised admiration, in the glances he had bestowed upon her to-night. He was evidently not deeply in love with his pretty sporting cousin, or she would have been Mrs. Guy Spencer before now, assuming, of course, that she was ready to obey her father's wishes.
It was after a short silence that Miss Keane put a somewhat abrupt question to him: "Are you fond of play, Mr. Spencer? Everybody is who comes here."
"Not really. I am a very lukewarm gambler. I don't mind a little flutter now and then, as a diversion. I always enjoy a small gamble at Monte Carlo, for example, but I never get carried away. When I have lost enough, I stop. Nothing could induce me to stake another sou."
"Can you stop as easily when you are winning? That, I fancy, is where the selfcontrol comes in. But I think I am rather glad you are not one of the infatuated ones. I was brought up in an atmosphere of gambling."
There was a pathetic shadow in the beautiful brown eyes as she spoke. Spencer's interest in her, a girl he had only known for a couple of hours, quickened. The glance he turned on her was full of sympathy, although he did not utter a word. It said as plainly as if he had spoken: "Tell me more about yourself, you will find an attentive listener."
"My father and mother were both desperate gamblers. They staked and lost everything they had at cards, on the race-course, at Monte Carlo. My poor cousin, Mrs. L'Estrange, has the same fever in her veins."