“No,” he said. “No, I won’t. Charlotte Gillingham! Who in the devil’s name — ” He broke off, and got up abruptly. “By God, if I thought — Nancy, I’m off! You’re a deuced good friend, my girl, and I’m devilish grateful to you!”

“Well, give me another kiss, then!” she said, laughing.

The Viscount reached home again to find that his wife had gone out driving in the Park. It said much for his newfound sense of responsibility that, after a glance at the ormolu clock on the drawing-room mantelpiece, he sent round a note to Stratton Street, briefly excusing himself from accompanying Mr Ringwood on an expedition to Richmond.

When Hero presently returned to the house, she ran lightly upstairs, and the Viscount heard her moving about in the room behind the drawing-room. She did not sound to be in dejected spirits, which surprised him a little, and when she at last entered the drawing-room the start she gave upon seeing him there was one of unadulterated gladness. “Sherry! I had not thought you were at home! Do you not go with Gil, after all?”

“No. I’m dining at home. Come over here, Kitten: I want to talk to you.”

She blushed rosily. “Do you, Sherry? How comfortable that sounds!”

“That’s just what it ain’t in the least likely to be!” muttered his lordship.

She came to the fire. “What did you say, Sherry?”

“Nothing. Sit down! Oh, the devil take that bird!” He strode over to the canary, and covered its cage, and turned back to Hero. “Now, brat, out with it! How badly were you dipped at Charlotte Gillingham’s house while I was away?”

The colour fled from her cheeks, and the look of trustful expectancy from her eyes. “Oh, Sherry, who told you?” she said, in a frightened voice.

“Never mind that! How much, Kitten?”

She shuddered. “Oh, don’t ask me! It was so shocking!”

“Not ask you!” he exclaimed. “How the deuce am I to settle your debts if I don’t know what they are? Don’t be nonsensical!”

“Oh, Sherry, Sherry, I am so very sorry! Indeed, I never meant to be such a bad wife! And you are not going to settle for me at all, because I am going to pay it myself, and I shall do so, Sherry, because you give me such a big allowance for my pin-money, and I won’t purchase any more new gowns, or anything! I promise!”

“That’s fudge, brat. Besides, you must pay your gaming debts at once, you know. Can’t expect people to wait for what you owe ’em. Shocking bad ton, my girl!”

“Yes, yes, I know that, and indeed I have redeemed all my vowels, though at first I did not know how in the world I could do so, and I felt as though I would rather die than — ”

“Just a moment!” Sherry said, catching her unquiet hands, and holding them in a hard grasp. “How did you contrive to come by the money to redeem your vowels? I’ll swear you’d little enough left of this quarter’s allowance! Kitten, you haven’t sold the emeralds?”

“Oh, no, Sherry! Of course I have not done such a wicked thing! Why, they are not mine to sell! How could you think I would dream of doing so?”

“Then how the devil did you raise the wind?”

“I borrowed the money!” she replied triumphantly.

“Borrowed it? Good God, I had rather you had sold the emeralds! Who — Kitten, don’t tell me you came down on poor old Gil to lend you money!”

“No, no! I knew that would not do! I went to those people you told me about, and they were very obliging, and — ”

“What people?” he interrupted, turning a little pale.

“I do not recall their names, but you will know, Sherry! you called them cent-per-cent, and they live — ”

“Howard and Gibbs!” he ejaculated, in a stunned tone.

“Yes, those are their names,” she nodded. “And as soon as I told them I was your wife they — at least, it was just one man — he was most civil, and he said he was perfectly willing to lend me the money, and I need not fear that he would press me for an early settlement.”

“I’ll warrant he did!” Sherry said. He released her hands. “Howard and Gibbs! Kitten, how could you?”

“You are angry!” she faltered. “Was it wrong of me? I did not know. You said you had had dealings with them, and I thought — ”

He groaned. “The devil! I said! I said! For God’s sake, girl, did I ever say that you were to have dealings with them?”

“No, Sherry,” she replied, in a small voice. “But you did not tell me I must not, and what else could I do, when I owed all that money?”

He said sharply: “In the devil’s name, why could you not have told me? Hang it, I may have boxed your ears once or twice, and I dare say I might have done so again, but you can’t have been afraid of me!”

She got up quickly, colour surging into her cheeks. “Afraid of you, Sherry! Oh, never, never! But I felt so dreadfully! You do not understand! You have had such a shocking run of luck, and then those horrid horses behaved so badly at Newmarket — I would have done anything rather than ask you to pay my gaming debts!”

He stared at her. “Hero, you could not suppose that I would permit you to fall into the hands of those bloodsuckers?”

“But, Sherry, I am persuaded they are no such things! I am to pay back the principal out of my allowance, and — ”

“You little fool, they know very well you will do no such thing! They hope you will become more deeplydipped than ever, and fall more securely into their talons, until — Oh, the devil, where’s the use? Listen, brat — Never, whatever happens, have anything to do with moneylenders! It’s the surest road to ruin of them all! Yes, yes, I know I’ve been in their hands myself, but that’s another thing altogether — at least, it isn’t! I can tell you this: I’ll take precious good care I don’t fall into ’em again. Promise me, now!”

“I promise. I am very sorry! If I had known you would not like it — ”

“I fancy you did know, Kitten,” he said shrewdly. “It ain’t like you not to tell me what tricks you’ve been playing.”

She hung her head. “Well, I — well, I did not feel quite comfortable,” she confessed. “But that was mostly because I feared you would be cross with me for going to that house, and gaming for such high stakes.”

“So I am,” he said. “What were the stakes?”

“F-fifty pounds, Sherry,” she whispered.

He gave a whistle. “Were they, by God! What’s the figure?” He glanced down at the bowed head. “Come along, brat! I won’t eat you!”

“Oh, Sherry, I lost over five thousand pounds!” Hero blurted out.

His lordship preserved his control over himself with a strong effort. After a moment of inward struggle, he said: “Drawing the bustle with a vengeance, weren’t you? No, don’t cry! It might have been worse. But what possessed you, you little simpleton, to throw good money after bad? For I know very well you went a second night to that curst hell! Had you no more sense than to allow yourself to be plucked again? Good God! is gaming in your blood?”

“Oh, no, no, I am sure it is not, for I was never more uncomfortable in my life! Indeed, I wish I had not gone back, but I did it for the best, Sherry, and truly I thought you would have told me to if I could but have asked you!”

“Thought I — thought I — ?” gasped his lordship. “Have you gone mad, Hero?”

“But Sherry, you told me yourself, when your uncle Prosper had been teasing you, that the only thing to be done was to continue playing, because a run of bad luck could not last for ever, and — ” She broke off, alarmed by the expression on his face. “Oh, what have I said?” she cried.

“It’s what I have said!” replied Sherry. “No, no, don’t look like that, Kitten! It’s all my curst fault! Only I never dreamed you’d pay the least heed — Lord, I might have known, though! Kitten, don’t listen to me when I talk such nonsense!”

Her eyes were fixed on his face inquiringly. “But is it not true, after all, Sherry?” she asked. “I must say, it did not seem to be true, for I lost more heavily than ever, but I thought perhaps I had not persevered for long enough. Only I disliked it so very much that I gave it up in despair.”

“Well, thank God for that!” he said. “No, it’s not true — at least — dash it, I mean — ”

“I see!” she said helpfully, clasping his hand, and giving it a squeeze. “You mean it is the same as going to the Royal Saloon: you may do so, but I must not, on account of being a female.”

“Yes, that’s it. No, it ain’t, though!” said Sherry, his natural honesty asserting itself. “It ain’t true for either of us, brat, and if we don’t take care we shall find ourselves in the basket. Lord, I couldn’t tell you the fortunes which have changed hands over the gaming table! It’s what finished Brummell, and poor Tallerton, and that fellow Stoke prosed on about — fellow who hanged himself from a lamp post, or some such flummery!” He laughed, as Hero instinctively clutched his arm. “No, I don’t mean to follow his example, never fear! I’ll see Stoke tomorrow, and settle with Howard and Gibbs, and you need not think any more about it.”

“Yes, but I know it will mean that you must sell out those things Mr Stoke does not like you to sell, and — ”

“That’s my affair.”

“It isn’t, Sherry: it is mine! I must own, it would be a great relief not to be owing money to strangers, but if you are to pay for me I will pay it back to you out of my pin-money.”

He gave her cheek a rub. “Silly little puss! No, we shall be all right and tight, you’ll see! But there’s another thing I want to know! Who introduced Mrs Gillingham to you, brat?”

“Well, no one, Sherry. She introduced herself. She said she was a friend of yours.”

“Are you telling me that that harpy had the effrontery to call upon you?” he demanded.