"Sixty pounds; but I was a fool, and doubled no trumps on a risky hand, on the chance of making the rubber. That was quite an exceptional drop!" "I should hope so, indeed!" Elma's horror was genuinely unassumed. "Sixty pounds! Why, it's more than many a poor family has to live on all the year round! Think of all the good you could do with sixty pounds! It seems awful to lose it on cards in one evening!" "The next sixty pounds I win, I'll give to a workmen's charity! Will that wipe away my offence?" Elma was not at all sure that it would. Money won in unworthy fashion could never bring with it a blessing, according to Mrs Ramsden's theories. She shook her head sadly, and ventured another question. "You go to races, too, don't you?" "Whenever I get the chance." "You _like_ going?" "Love it! Why shouldn't I? Finest thing in the world to see a good hard race! Wish I could keep a stud myself. I would, if I had the money. I must tell you the truth, you see, even if you are shocked!" "Racecourses are very wicked places." "Ever seen one?" "No." "Oh!" They looked at each other and simultaneously burst into a laugh. They were young and in love; it was delightful to brush aside problematical difficulties, and give themselves over to enjoyment of the golden present. Elma forgot her usual somewhat prim reserve, and her laughter was like a chime of silver bells. It is a rare thing to bear a musical laugh. Geoffrey longed for nothing so much as to make her laugh again. "I'm a born sportsman, Miss Ramsden, and I'll never be anything else. I'd like to give up everything you dislike, but it's no use swearing against one's convictions. It's not honest, and it doesn't last, but I can promise you always to play straight, and to keep down the stakes so that I shall never run the risk of losing so much again." "Why can't you play for nothing but just the fun of the game?" "We call that playing for love! It's rather dull--_in cards_!" Elma twirled her parasol, and blushed to the eyes. CHAPTER THIRTEEN. Mrs Ramsden sent up a box to the Manor that same afternoon, containing a dark linen dress, a blue blouse, and black skirt for evening wear; a supply of underclothing, a grey Shetland shawl, and a flannel dressing- gown. An hour later, conveyed by special messenger, came a second box, accompanied by a note in Cornelia's handwriting. Elma was resting in her bedroom when it arrived. She opened it, and read as follows:--