"
"That's clever and original of you, anyhow. Where have you been, to
avoid them? What time to-morrow? Is ten o'clock too early?"
Mary blushed. "Would afternoon suit you? I feel as if I should have luck
again, if I played in the morning."
"Afternoon, of course," Carleton assented politely, though he was
disappointed; for in giving the invitation he had been following his
friend's lead in trying to save the moth from the candle. "Shall we say
three o'clock? I'll call for you."
"We'll both call, with my car," said Schuyler. "But what about that 5
per cent. which I suppose you want to give your roulette teacher?" he
went on, with apparent carelessness.
"I want to give her more," Mary confessed, with that soft obstinacy
which people found difficult to combat.
But Schuyler had weapons for padded barricades. He turned to Madeleine.
"I'm certain that Madame will refuse to accept more," he said.
She faced him defiantly. Then her eyes fell. She dared not make him an
active enemy. Though he never gambled, he was a man of influence at the
Casino, for he was a friend of those highest in authority, and had
power "on the Rock," also, for the Prince and he were on visiting terms,
Madeleine d'Ambre had learned these details since the evening on the
terrace when he had tested her "poison."
"Yes, I--should refuse to accept," she echoed, morosely.
"Virtue is its own reward; and there may be others," Schuyler said as he
deducted a sum equal to 5 per cent.
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