If Sinners Entice Thee, by William Le Queux. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ IF SINNERS ENTICE THEE, BY WILLIAM LE QUEUX. CHAPTER ONE. ZERTHO. "No, Zertho. You forget that Liane is my daughter, the daughter of Brooker of the Guards, once an officer, and still, I hope, a gentleman." "Gentleman!" sneered the other with a curl of his lip. Erle Brooker shrugged his shoulders, but did not reply. "Yet many women would be eager enough to become Princess d'Auzac if they had the chance," observed the tall, dark-bearded, handsome man, speaking English with a slight accent as he leaned easily against the edge of the table, and glanced around the shabby, cheaply-furnished little dining-room. Sallow-faced, dark-eyed, broad-shouldered, he was aged about forty--with full lips and long tapering hands, white as a woman's. "Both of us know the world, my dear fellow," answered Captain Erle Brooker at last, standing astride before the fireplace in which a gaudy Japanese umbrella had been placed to hide its ugliness. "Surely the five years we spent together were sufficient to show us that there are women--and women?" "Of course, as I expected," the other cried cynically. "Now that you're back again in England, buried in this sleepy country village, you are becoming sentimental. I suppose it is respectable to be so; but it's hardly like you." "You've prospered. I've fallen upon evil days." "And you could have had similar luck if only you would have continued to run with me that snug little place in Nice, instead of showing the white feather," he said. "It was entirely against my grain to fleece those beardless boys. I'll play fair, or not at all." "Sentiment again! It's your curse, Brooker." "The speculation no doubt proved a veritable gold mine, as of course it must. But I had a second reason in dissolving our partnership." "Liane urged you?" "Yes." "And you took her advice, the advice of a mere girl!" he laughed contemptuously. "Luck is always with her," the Captain answered. "She sat beside me and prompted me on the occasion of my last big coup at roulette." "A sort of sorceress, eh?" Brooker smiled coldly, but again made no reply. "Well," continued his companion. "Do you intend to accept my proposal?" "Certainly not," replied the luckless gamester. "I'll never sacrifice my daughter's happiness." "Rubbish!" "I have already decided."