Leah started. She thought that Askew was safe in Shropshire, making attempts to civilise the fixture. "Harry Askew?" "That's so," assented Miss Mulrady, relapsing into her Wild West vocabulary, and with a keen look. "He called on Mommo an' me, when he was cruisin' out 'Frisco way. We're negotiatin' a system to break this old bank." "You evidently wish to be popularised in a song," said Lady Jim, languidly. "How long has Mr. Askew been devoting his energies to such things?" This with an angry reflection that he had not called on her. "You might reckon it twenty-four hours," said the American, admiring her pointed brown shoe. "He's here for his health." "I've heard that excuse before, with regard to Monte Carlo." "Shouldn't wonder. We ticket our sins best sugar. Sir Billy, come along an' buy me candy at the stores." "But your man, Miss Mulrady--the Askew chap?" "Lady Jim an' I 'ull swap humans. What say?" and she looked at Leah, mischievously overdoing the slang. "I never swap what isn't my own property," answered Lady Jim, considering this offer too Western, and resenting the familiarity to the extent of walking into the Casino with her head very much in the air. America could hold her own with the mother-country, and Leah did not approve. "She wants to be the whole show an' the box-office," murmured Mamie, mischievously. "Stay here, Bub." "I am sorry to refuse a lady," replied Billy, resenting the word; "but I've put my money on Lady Jim, this trip." "On the red--hair, you mean. Go bye-bye with your nurse, then. Here's Mr. Askew, he's older than you." "And easier to please," snapped the youth, much offended. "You'll excuse me, Miss Mulrady, but a man can't keep a woman waitin'." He retired into what Lady Jim called the "devil's parlour" with a Floreat Etona air, and Miss Mulrady, after a glance at the ears which she longed to box soundly, turned to receive a breathless apology from the belated Askew. "There's a friend of yours gone in to sin for an hour," said she, when a treaty was concluded. "I have so many friends--so-called." "Of the high-toned gilt-edged sort, with red scalps?" Askew comprehended in a second. "Lady Jim," he stammered; "yes, I heard that she was at San Remo. What's she doing here?" "Visitin' the sick an' the poor," said Mamie, shrewdly. "It's what folks come to Monte for. Guess, she best drop in on you--a sicker man I never saw, an' you'll be poor enough by th' time we're through with this old system of yours. I know a bank where th' wild time goes. You may look all through Bacon without findin' that remark--it's my own. Let's get." Thus, with barbaric japes, did the child of nature lead her companion into the gilded halls of iniquity, and the two jostled the well-dressed crowd which circulated round the tables. The silence was that of an arctic night, save for the droning voices of the croupiers, and at times a hurried whisper of joy or dismay.