“Well, then, as you ran out--to faint, Mademoiselle Klosking came in, just as she did at the opera, you know, the time before, when you ran out--to bleed. She slipped into your chair, the very moment you left it; and your friend with the flaming neck-tie told her you had set him to bet with your money. By-the-by, Mr. Severne, how on earth do you and Mademoiselle Klosking, who have both so much taste in dress, come to have a mutual friend, vulgarity in person, with a velveteen coat and an impossible neck-tie?” “What are you talking about, Miss Dover? I do just know Mademoiselle Klosking; I met her in society in Vienna, two years ago: but that cad I commissioned to bet for me I never saw before in my life. You are keeping me on tenter-hooks. My money--my money--my money! If you have a heart in your bosom, tell me what became of my money.” He was violent, for the first time since they had known him, and his eyes flashed fire. “Well,” said Fanny, beginning to be puzzled and rather frightened, “this man, who you _say_ was a new acquaintance--” “Whom I _say?_ Do you mean to tell me I am a liar?” He fumbled eagerly in his breast-pocket, and produced a card. “There,” said he, “this is the card he gave me, 'Mr. Joseph Ashmead.' Now, may this train dash over the next viaduct, and take you and Miss Vizard to heaven, and me to hell, if I ever saw Mr. Joseph Ashmead's face before. THE MONEY!--THE MONEY!” He uttered this furiously, and, it is a curious fact; but Zoe turned red, and Fanny pale. It was really in quite a cowed voice Miss Dover went on to say, “La! don't fly out like that. Well, then, the man refused to bet with your money; so then Mademoiselle Klosking said she would; and she played--oh, how she did play! She doubled, and doubled, and doubled, hundreds upon hundreds. She made a mountain of gold and a pyramid of bank-notes; and she never stopped till she broke the bank--there!” “With my money?” gasped Severne. “Yes; with your money. Your friend with the loud tie pocketed it; I beg your pardon, not your friend--only hers. Harrington says he is her _cher ami.”_ “The money is mine!” he shrieked. “I don't care who played with it, it is mine. And the fellow had the impudence to send me back my fifty pounds to the Russie.” “What! you gave him your address?” this with an involuntary glance of surprise at Zoe. “Of course. Do you think I leave a man fifty pounds to play with, and don't give him my address? He has won thousands with my money, and sent me back my fifty, for a blind, the thief!” “Well, really it is too bad,” said Fanny. “But, there--I'm afraid you must make the best of it. Of course, their sending back your fifty pounds shows they mean to keep their winnings.” “You talk like a woman,” said he; then, grinding his teeth, and stretching out a long muscular arm, he said, “I'll take the blackguard by the throat and tear it out of him, though I tear his life out along with it.”