"A year's pay! You old goose, Hugh! You'd give your life--but you wouldn't give one button off the tunic of one of the soldiers in your blessed regiment." She held out her hand to him, smiling under misty eyes. "You men are queer," she ended. After a stealthy look round, the General raised her hand to his lips. They were friends again, and he was glad. Yet she would not forgo her privilege of ridicule and irony--the last and only weapon of the conquered. "I don't know that anything need be said----" "So you two valiant soldiers have decided that I had better say it?" she interrupted. "How could either of us so much as hint that she--that she was the least interested in our movements?" "Not even in your retreats? Oh, I'll tell her you're going by the next boat. Nearly a week off, though, isn't it?" She hinted maliciously that the week might be difficult--even dangerous. Whether it would be depended on how Winnie took their decision. Mrs. Lenoir's unregenerate impulse would have been to make that week rather trying to the Major, had she been in Winnie's place. By being disagreeable to him? No, she would have found a better way than that. A merry laugh sounded from the door of the casino. Winnie was there, in animated conversation with the Anstruther boys. A great event had happened, calculated to amuse the whole hotel. 'Dolly' had come down with his usual half-dollar--and had lost it as usual. He walked round the room, then up and down the concert-room adjoining. He went to the other table, he came back to the one at which he had played. He fidgeted about, behind the second Anstruther boy, for some minutes. Then he fished out another half-dollar, and put it on a single number--twenty! Could Winnie, his confidante, doubt what was in his mind? The number twenty was the gage of Dame Fortune; he would wear it on his sleeve! Number twenty came up; the little man, with a quick gasp for breath, pounced on his handful of money. "Well, any of us may win after that!" said the elder Anstruther boy, who had been strongly for the view that Mr. Wigram was a 'hoodoo' to the whole hotel. With rapid yet gracious dexterity Winnie got rid of her companions. She had caught sight of the General's tall figure as he left Mrs. Lenoir's side. She came down to her friend's chair, and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Not cold?" Mrs. Lenoir shook her head. "Well, let's go home, anyhow--shall we? I've had a long afternoon with those boys--I'm tired." "Sit down for a minute, child. So you let the cat out of the bag?" "I told you I had to. Has he been here? I haven't seen him." "Bertie? No--only the General. Bertie's gone for a walk by himself. But, before he went, he told the General." "Well?" Winnie was drawing on the gloves she had taken off to count out her money in the room.