Faro's Daughter Read Online Free PDF Page A

‘What brought you here?’ she asked abruptly.
    ‘Curiosity, Miss Grantham.’
    ‘Is it satisfied?’
    ‘Oh, not yet, ma’am! Let me give you some of these green peas; they are quite excellent!’
    ‘Yes, we pride ourselves on the quality of our suppers,’ she said. ‘Why did you play at E.O.? Is not faro your game?’
    ‘Curiosity again, Miss Grantham. My besetting sin.’
    ‘Curiosity to see a female elbow-shaker, sir?’
    ‘Just so,’ he agreed.
    ‘Was that why you came?’
    ‘Of course,’ he said coolly.
    She laughed. ‘Well, I did not think when I saw you that you were a gamester!’
    ‘Did you take me for a flat, Miss Grantham?’
    Her eyes twinkled rather attractively. ‘Why, yes, for a moment I did! But Lord Ormskirk put all my hopes to flight. The rich Mr Ravenscar’s luck at the bones or the cards is proverbial.’
    ‘It was out tonight.’
    ‘Oh, you do not care a fig for that silly game! I wish you may not break my aunt’s faro-bank.’
    ‘If you will inform the stalwart person at your door that I am free to enter the house, I promise I shall endeavour to do so when I come again.’
    ‘You must know that all doors are open to the rich Mr Ravenscar—particularly such doors as this.’
    ‘Make it plain, then, to your henchman, or you may have a brawl upon your doorstep.’
    ‘Ah, Silas is too knowing a one! Only law-officers and their spies are refused admittance here, and he would smell one at sixty paces.’
    ‘What a valuable acquisition he must be to you!’
    ‘It would be impossible to imagine an existence without him. He was my father’s sergeant. I have known him from my cradle.’
    ‘Your father was a military man?’ said Mr Ravenscar, slightly raising his brows.
    ‘Yes, at one time.’
    ‘And then?’
    ‘You are curious again, Mr Ravenscar?’
    ‘Very.’
    ‘He was a gamester. It runs in the blood, you observe.’
    ‘That would account for your presence here, of course.’
    ‘Oh, I have been familiar with gaming-houses from my childhood up! I can tell a Greek, or a Captain Sharp, within ten minutes of his entering the room; I could play the groom porter for you, or deal for a faro-bank; I can detect a bale of flat conquer deuces as quickly as you could yourself; and the man who can fuzz the cards when I am at the table don’t exist.’
    ‘You astonish me, Miss Grantham. You are indeed accomplished!’
    ‘No,’ she said seriously. ‘It is my business to know those things. I have no accomplishments. I do not sing, or play upon the pianoforte, or paint in water-colours. Those are accomplishments.’
    ‘True,’ he agreed. ‘But why repine? In certain circles they may be de rigueur , but they would be of very little use to you here, I imagine. You were wise to waste no time on such fripperies: you are already perfect for your setting, ma’am.’
    ‘For my setting!’ she repeated, flushing a little. ‘The devil! Your cousin is more complimentary!’
    ‘Yes, I daresay he is,’ replied Ravenscar, refilling her wineglass. ‘My cousin is very young and impressionable.’
    ‘I am sure you, sir, are certainly not impressionable.’
    ‘Not a bit,’ he said cheerfully. ‘But I am perfectly ready to pay you any number of compliments, if that is what you wish.’
    She bit her lip, saying, after a moment, with a suggestion of pique in her voice: ‘I don’t wish it at all.’
    ‘In that cast,’ said Ravenscar, ‘I feel that we shall deal extremely together. Do you play piquet?’
    ‘Certainly.’
    ‘Ah, but I mean do you play well enough to engage in a rubber with me?’
    Miss Grantham eyed him with considerable hostility. ‘I am thought,’ she said coldly, ‘to have a reasonably good understanding.’
    ‘So have many others I could name, but that does not make them good card-players.’
    Miss Grantham sat very straight in her chair. Her magnificent eyes flashed. ‘My skill at cards, Mr Ravenscar, has never yet been called in question!’
    ‘But you have