"Never. I believe Patient thinks I do, but she is mistaken. I threw at basset once, and I shall never do it again." "Did you lose?" "No, I won." "Then what made you determine not to do it again?" "A remark of Leroy, who was standing near. He said, 'No man ever loses at the first throw. I never saw one lose. The Devil is too cunning for that.' I thought that if the habitual frequenters of the basset-table acknowledged that gentleman for their president, the less I saw of it the better." "I think you were very wise, Philip," said Celia. "Monsieur Leroy! The man who"--she stopped suddenly, wondering whether Philip were acquainted with the facts of which she was thinking. "'The man who'--precisely: Savarie Leroy. I see Patient has told you that sad story." "Philip," said Celia, very seriously, "I wish I could do something to help you. If you do _really_ wish to fear God"-- "My dear little sister," replied Philip, putting his arm round her, "have you any idea how much you have helped me already? I am not quite the Gallio you and Patient think me--caring for none of these things. Now I will just give you a glimpse into my heart. I always knew what Patient was--she never concealed her thoughts on the matter; but there are thirty years between her and me, and I fancied--perhaps foolishly--that the religion which might be very good for her would not do for me. I thought many a time, 'If I could find some one in my own rank, and near my own age, who had not been brought up with Patient as Ned and I have, and therefore had not taken the tone of his feelings from her; if this person should think, feel, and talk in the same way that she does, having derived it from a different locality and breeding, and all that,--why, then, I should feel that, whatever else this religion of hers were, at least it was a reality.' Now this I never could have found in Ned, for two reasons: as to religious breeding, Patient has brought him up; the tone and color of his religion he derives from her. And, secondly, Ned is rather close. Not in the least sternly or unkindly so--nothing of the sort; but he is not such an open, foolish, off-handed fellow as I am. It is not natural to him, as it is to me, to say everything he thinks, to everybody who comes in his way; and in religious matters particularly, what he thinks and feels he keeps to himself. Well, then you came. For the first few weeks that you were here, I watched you like a cat watches a mouse. If you had made one slip--if I had once seen your profession and practice at variance--if you had been less gentle and obedient to my mother, when I could see that she was making you do things which you would much rather not do: or if, on the other hand, you had allowed her to lead you into something which I knew that you considered positively forbidden--if I had seen anything of this, Celia, I should have gone away more irretrievably disgusted than ever with religion and all who professed it.