She glanced an appeal for consideration to Cosmo, and did not move. Cosmo sat down again. A few minutes passed in silence. Father and daughter stared into the fire. So did Cosmo. But into what different three worlds did the fire stare! The old man rose and went to the window. “I _must_ get away from this abominable place,” he said, “if it cost me my life.” He looked out and shuddered. The world seemed impassable as a dead world on which the foot of the living could take no hold, could measure no distance, make no progress. Not a print of man or of beast was visible. It was like a world not yet discovered. “I am tied to the stake; I hear the fire roaring!” he muttered. “My fate has found me--caught me like a rat, and is going to make an end of me! In my time nobody believed such things! Now they seem to be coming into fashion again!” Whoever would represent what is passing in a mind, must say more than the man himself knows how to say. The laird re-entered. “Well, have you brought the cards?” said Lord Mergwain, turning from the window. “I have, my lord. I am sorry it is such a poor pack, but we never play.--I think, Cosmo, you had better come with me.” “Hold you, laird, we’re going to have a rubber!” “Cosmo does not understand the game.” “I will teach him,” said Lady Joan. “He shall be live dummy for a few rounds; that will be enough.” “My lord will not care to play for counters,” persisted the laird, “and we cannot play for money.” “I don’t care what the points are,” said Lord Mergwain, “--sixpence, if you like--so long as it is money. None but a fool cares for victory where nothing is to be got by it.” “I am sorry to disappoint your lordship,” returned the laird, “but play for money neither my son nor myself will. But perhaps you would like a game of draughts, or backgammon?” “Will you bet on the game or the gammon?” “On nothing, my lord.” “Oh, confound you!” He turned again and went to the window. “This is frightful!” he said to himself. “Nothing whatever to help one to forget! If the day goes on like this, I shall out with everything.--Maybe I had better!--How the clodpoles would stare! I believe I should laugh in the middle of it.--And that fellow lurking somewhere all the time about the place, watching his chance when the night comes!--It’s horrible. I shall go mad!” This last he spoke aloud. “Papa!” said his daughter sharply. Lord Mergwain started, and looked troubled. What he might have uttered, he could not tell. “A rubber, then,” he said, approaching the fire again, “--on any terms, or no terms at all!” He took up the cards. “Ha, there’s blood on them,” he cried, and dashing them on the table, turned once more to the window.