Van was looking ruefully out of the window, down upon the deserted pavement opposite. At length he said,
And why don't you give your luck a chance?
Whenever I give it a chance it hits me so devilish hard, replied Richard Arden.
But I mean at play to retrieve, said Van.
So do I. So I did, last night, and lost another thousand. It is utterly monstrous.
By Jove! that is really very extraordinary, exclaimed little Van. I tried it, too, last night. Tom Franklyn had some fellows to sup with him, and I went in, and they were playing loo; and I lost thirty-seven pounds more!
Thirty-seven confounded flea-bites! Why, don't you see how you torture me with your nonsense? If you can't talk like a man of sense, for Heaven's sake, shut up, and don't distract me in my misery.
He emphasised the word with a Lilliputian thump with the side of his fistthat which presents the edge of the doubled-up little finger and palma sort of buffer, which I suppose he thought he might safely apply to the pane of glass on which he had been drumming. But he hit a little too hard, or there was a flaw in the glass, for the pane flew out, touching the window-sill, and alighted in the area with a musical jingle.
There! see what you made me do. My luck! Now we can't talk without those brutes at that open window, over the way, hearing every word we say. By Jove, it is later than I thought! I did not sleep last night.
Nor I, a moment, said Van.
So, in better spirits, Arden prepared to visit his uncle.
Let us get into a cab; people are staring at you, said Richard Arden, when they had walked a little way towards his uncle's house. You look so utterly ruined, one would think you had swallowed poison, and were dying by inches, and
They got in, and sitting side by side, said Vandeleur to him, after a minute's silence,
I've been thinking of a thingwhy did not you take Mr. Longcluse into council? He gave you a lift before, don't you remember? and he lost nothing by it, and made everything smooth. Why don't you look him up?
I've been an awful fool, Van.
How so?
I've had a sort of row with Longcluse, and there are reasonsI could not, at all events, have asked him. It would have been next to impossible, and now it is quite impossible.
Why should it be? He seemed to like you; and I venture to say he'd be very glad to shake hands.
So he might, but I shouldn't, said Richard imperiously. No, no, there's nothing in that. It would take too long to tell; but I should rather go over the precipice than hold by that stay. I don't know how long my uncle may keep me. Would you mind waiting for me at my lodgings? Thompson will give you cigars and brandy and water; and I'll come back and tell you what my uncle intends.
This appointment made, they parted, and he knocked at his uncle's door. The sound seemed to echo threateningly at his heart, which sank with a sudden misgiving.