Faro's Daughter Read Online Free PDF Page B

he replied. ‘Your play is good, for a lady. You are weakest in your discards.’
    Miss Grantham cut the pack towards him with something of a snap.
    In the middle of the third rubber, Lord Mablethorpe came back into the saloon, and made his way to Miss Grantham’s side. ‘Are you ruined yet, Deb?’ he asked, smiling warmly down at her.
    ‘No such thing! We have lost a rubber apiece, and this one is to decide the issue. Hush, now! I am very much on my mettle, and can’t be distracted.’
    He drew up a frail, gilded chair, and sat down astride it, resting his arms on the back. ‘You said I might watch you!’
    ‘So you may, and bring me good fortune, I hope. Your point is good, Mr Ravenscar.’
    ‘Also my quint , Miss Grantham?’
    ‘That also.’
    ‘Very well, then; a quint, a tierce, fourteen aces, three kings, and eleven cards played, ma’am.’
    Miss Grantham cast a frowning glance at the galaxy of court cards which Ravenscar spread before her eyes, and a very dubious glance at the back of the one card remaining in his hand. ‘Oh, the deuce! All hangs upon this, and I swear there’s nothing to tell me what I should keep!’
    ‘Nothing at all,’ he said.
    ‘A diamond!’ she said, throwing down the rest of her hand. ‘You lose,’ said Ravenscar, exhibiting a small club. ‘Piqued, repiqued, and capotted!’ groaned Lord Mablethorpe. ‘Deb, my dearest, I warned you to have nothing to do with Max! Do come away!’
    ‘I am not so poor-spirited! Do you care to continue, sir?’
    ‘With all my heart!’ said Mr Ravenscar, gathering up the cards. ‘You are a good loser, Miss Grantham.’
    ‘Oh, I don’t regard this little reverse, I assure you! I am not rolled up yet!’
    As the night wore on, however, she began to go down heavily, as though Ravenscar, trifling with her at first, had decided to exert his skill against her. She thought the luck favoured him, but was forced to acknowledge him to be her master.
    ‘You make me feel like a greenhorn!’ she said lightly, when he robbed her of a pique. ‘Monstrous of you to have kept the spade-guard! I did not look for such usage, indeed!’
    ‘No, you would have thrown the little spade on the slim chance of picking up an ace or a king, would you not?’
    ‘Oh, I always gamble on slim chances—and rarely lose! But you are a cold gamester, Mr Ravenscar!’
    ‘I don’t bet against the odds, I own,’ he smiled, beckoning to a waiter. ‘You’ll take a glass of claret, Miss Grantham?’
    ‘No, not I! Nothing but lemonade, I thank you. I need to have my wits about me in this contest. But this must be our last rubber. I see my aunt going down to the second supper, and judge it must be three o’clock at least.’
    Lord Mablethorpe, who had wandered away disconsolately some time before, came back to the table with a tale of losses at faro to report, and a complaint to utter that his Deb was neglecting him for his tiresome cousin. ‘How’s the tally?’ he asked, leaning his hand on the back of her chair.
    ‘Well, I am dipped a trifle, but not above two or three hundred pounds, I fancy.’
    He said in an undervoice: ‘You know I hate you to do this!’
    ‘You are interrupting the game, my dear.’
    He muttered: ‘When we are married I shan’t permit it.’
    She looked up, mischievously smiling. ‘When we are married, you foolish boy, I shall of course do exactly as you wish. Your deal, Mr Ravenscar!’
    Mr Ravenscar, on whom this soft dialogue had not been wasted, picked up the pack, and wished that he had Miss Grantham’s throat in his strong, lean hands instead.
    The last rubber went very ill for Miss Grantham. Ravenscar won it in two swift games, and announced the sum of her losses to be six hundred pounds. She took this without a blink, and turned in her chair to issue a low-voiced direction to Mr Lucius Kennet, who, with one or two others, had come to watch the progress of the game. He nodded, and moved away towards the adjoining saloon. Sir James