He certainly would not have liked to avow that that was his reason for his faint suspicions. But that it was because Rachel, who had been concerned none the less he knew, at the bottom of his heart, in other dubious transactions, was present at the Priory, that he suspected, on hearing that Arthur Aldington had lost his money, that all was not as fair as it looked in the play. He stammered and would have changed the subject; but she would not let him. “Surely you don’t imagine,” she said, “that you would meet Lady Sylvia and the Marchioness at houses where there was anything wrong! I’m afraid, Mr. Buckland, you let your Puritanism carry you a great deal too far.” She spoke with so much emphasis that he felt ashamed of what he had said, the more so that he really had no grounds for supposing that the two wealthy young Americans would do anything that was not fair. Indeed, he had himself heard one of them trying to persuade a silly fellow not to play poker any more. “Well,” he said, in a shame-faced manner, “I admit that there’s something so distasteful to me in seeing men win money under their own roof, that I said what I had no right to say.” “I’m glad you admit so much,” said Rachel with dignity. “It is not a very nice suggestion to make that my friends, the people in whose house I am staying, are other than honorable.” Remembering what he was forced to suspect concerning her, Gerard could not help casting at her a quick glance, at which she blushed again. She knew very well that he suspected her of complicity in other risky adventures, and she had no right to challenge him. “Well,” said he, “I suppose I ought to apologize, but I confess that if I am forced to play cards here, and one feels awkward at refusing always, when one is asked, I shall feel very despondent at having to pit myself against such a lot of good players.” A change came over Rachel’s face. For a moment she sat silent, but then she rose from her chair, and with a glance which invited him to follow her, sauntered away to a flower-border, where she stopped, as if to admire the mass of gorgeous blossom in front of her. He looked at her, as she stood, a beautiful and even queenly figure, in her glittering black dress against the green of the foliage and the rich coloring of the flowers; and if she had turned at that moment she would almost have been able to read in Gerard’s face the feeling at his heart, the passionate wistful longing to know the truth, the whole truth about her, to learn, for good or ill, the secret which he knew was gnawing at her heart, to be able to tell, once for all, whether the woman who attracted him in spite of his knowledge, in spite of his judgment, was worthy or unworthy of an honest man’s love. CHAPTER XIV He was quite near to her before she spoke, and then she did so without looking up. In an off-hand tone, she said-- “I shouldn’t have expected you to play cards, after what you’ve said.”