"Does he frequent this place?" "Well, between you and me, he does." "Does he use these?" said Arthur, lifting a few of the cards, and letting them fall slowly through his fingers. "Well, sometimes he does one thing, sometimes another; you see this is a very extensive establishment, and sometimes he drinks in the saloon, sometimes gambles in here, and sometimes passes the evening up stairs with the ladies, and occasionally does all in the course of an evening. He's a fine fellow, I tell you; a fast un, though." "What ladies are in the house, the family of the man out yonder?" "Ha! ha! ha!" roared Quirk, uproariously; "what a prime innocent it is, though. Why, my boy, this is one of the fashionable establishments of the city." A glow of shame crossed Arthur's cheek, as the truth flashed upon his mind, and dashing his glass angrily down, blushing at the thought of being led into such a place, he was about to pass out of the door. "Why, hold on, Pratt; have you forgotten what you came here for? You haven't told me a word of what you were going to." "Nor shall I in this hole," returned Arthur, laying his hand upon the door-key; "if you want to hear it you must get out of here." "Nonsense!" exclaimed Quirk, trying to detain him; "hold on till we finish this bottle." "Not I," replied Arthur, "I've had enough;" and dashing open the door, he rushed against the trim figure of Clinton, who was just about to enter. CHAPTER XIX. "Fate is above us all; We struggle, but what matters our endeavor? Our doom is gone beyond our own recall; May we deny or mitigate it? Never!" Miss Landon. "Whither so fast, whither so fast!" cried Clinton, so cheerfully, as he laid both hands on Arthur's shoulders, and playfully detained him, that he could not answer the speaker with a frown; so, holding out his hand, he shook that of the new comer heartily, and suffered himself to be led back into the card-room. "If you hadn't have come just as you did, Clin, this chap would have been off like a shot from a shovel, his young modesty was so shocked just by my telling him the state of affairs in the house here," said Quirk, tipping back in his chair against the wall, while a sneer mingled in the smile upon his lips. "Well, if he isn't used to such things, I don't wonder," returned Clinton, drawing Arthur to a seat by his side, and squeezing cordially the hand he still held. "You're a pretty one to side that way," said Quirk, half angry at Clinton's remark. "If he ain't used to such things, it's time he was initiated, if he ever expects to be a man." "Time enough, time enough," replied Clinton, good-naturedly, shaking the bottle to see if there was anything left in it, then touching a table-bell at his side, he summoned Quibbles. "A couple of bottles of champagne here, and clean glasses." They were brought instantly. "How came you to drop in here, boys, to-night? I declare it is an unexpected pleasure."