"Duncombe gave a dinner at the hotel, and carried him off to it. I'm mortally afraid there's something amiss in that quarter. What, didn't you know that Duncombe's filly failed?" "No, indeed, I did not." "The town was ringing with it. Beaten out-and-out by Fair Phyllida! a beast that took them all by surprise--nothing to look at--but causing, I fancy, a good deal of distress. They say the Duncombes will be done for. I only wish Frank was clear; but that unhappy engagement has thrown him in with Sir Harry's set, and he was with them all day--hardly spoke to me. To a fellow like him, a veteran scamp like old Vivian, with his benignant looks, is ten times more dangerous than men of his own age. However, having done the damage, they seem to have thrown him off. Miss Vivian would not speak to him at the ball." "Eleonora! I don't know how to think it!" "What you cannot _think_, a Vivian can _do_ and does!" said Raymond, bitterly. "My belief is that he was decoyed into being fleeced by the father, and now they have done their worst, he is cast off. He came home with us, but sat outside, and I could not get a word out of him." "I hope my mother may." "If he be not too far gone for her. I always did expect some such termination, but not with this addition." "I don't understand it now--Lena!" "I only wonder at your surprise. The girl has been estranged from us all for a long time. If it is at an end, so much the better. I only wish we were none of us ever to see the face of one of them again." Julius knew from his wife that there were hopes for Raymond, but of course he might not speak, and he was revolving these words, which had a vehemence unlike the wont of the speaker, when he was startled by Raymond's saying, "Julius, you were right. I have come to the conclusion that no consideration shall ever make me sanction races again." "I am glad," began Julius. "You would not be glad if you had seen all I saw yesterday. You must have lent me your eyes, for when you spoke before of the evils, I thought you had picked up a Utopian notion, and were running a- muck with it, like an enthusiastic young clergyman. For my own part I can't say I ever came across anything offensive. Of course I know where to find it, as one does wherever one goes, but there was no call to run after it; and as we were used to the affair, it was a mere matter of society--" "No, it could never be any temptation to you," said Julius. "No, nor to any other reasonable man; and I should add, though perhaps you might not allow it, that so long as a man keeps within his means, he has a right to enhance his excitement and amusement by bets." "Umph! He has a right then to tempt others to their ruin, and create a class of speculators who live by gambling."