Volume I Part 36 (2/2)
”I have not the least objection to that,” said Sewell gayly; ”only let it first be paid.”
”Well, but--what I meant was--what I wanted to say, or rather, what I hoped--was--in plain words, Sewell,” burst he out, like a man to whom desperation gave courage,--”in plain words, I never intended to play such stakes as we played last night,--I never have--I never will again.”
”Not to give me my revenge?” said Sewell, laughing.
”No, not for anything. I don't know what I 'd have done--I don't know what would have become of me--if I had lost; and I pledge you my honor, I think the next worst thing is to have won.”
”Do you, by George!”
”I do, upon my sacred word of honor. My first thoughts on waking this morning were more wretched than they have been for any day in the last twenty years of life, for I was thoroughly ashamed of myself.”
”You 'll not find many men afflicted with your malady, Cave; and, at all events, it's not contagious.”
”I know nothing about that,” said Cave, half irritably; ”I never was a play man, and have little pretension to understand their feelings.”
”They have n't got any,” said Sewell, as he lit his cigar.
”Perhaps not; so much the worse for them. I can only say, if the misery of losing be only proportionate to the shame of winning, I don't envy a gambler. Such an example, too, to exhibit to my young officers! It was too bad--too bad.”
”I declare I don't understand this,” said Sewell, carelessly; ”when I commanded a battalion, I never imagined I was obliged to be a model to the subs or the junior captains.” The tone of banter went, this time, to the quick; and Cave flushed a deep crimson, and said,--”I'm not sorry that my ideas of my duty are different; though, in the present case, I have failed to fulfil it.”
”Well, well, there's nothing to grow angry about,” said Sewell, laughing, ”even though you won't give me my revenge. My present business is to book up;” and, as he spoke, he sat down at the table, and drew a roll of papers from his pocket and laid it before him.
”You distress me greatly by all this, Sewell,” said Cave, whose agitation now almost overcame him. ”Cannot we hit upon some way? can't we let it lie over? I mean,--is there no arrangement by which this cursed affair can be deferred? You understand me?”
”Not in the least. Such things are never deferred without loss of honor to the man in default. The stake that a man risks is supposed to be in his pocket, otherwise play becomes trade, and accepts all the vicissitudes of trade.”
”It's the first time I ever heard them contrasted to the disparagement of honest industry.”
”And I call billiards, tennis, whist, and ecarte honest industries, too, though I won't call them trades. There, there,” said he, laughing at the other's look of displeasure, ”don't be afraid; I am not going to preach these doctrines to your young officers, for whose morals you are so much concerned. Sit down here, and just listen to me for one moment.”
Cave obeyed, but his face showed in every feature how reluctantly.
”I see, Cave,” said Sewell, with a quiet smile,--”I see you want to do me a favor,--so you shall. I am obliged to own that I am an exception to the theory I have just now enunciated. I staked a thousand pounds, and I had _not_ the money in my pocket. Wait a moment,--don't interrupt me.
I had not the money in gold or bank-notes, but I had it here”--and he touched the papers before him--”in a form equally solvent, only that it required that he who won the money should be not a mere acquaintance, but a friend,--a friend to whom I could speak with freedom and in confidence. This,” said he, ”is a bond for twelve hundred pounds, given by my wife's guardian in satisfaction of a loan once made to him; he was a man of large fortune, which he squandered away recklessly, leaving but a small estate, which he could neither sell nor alienate. Upon this property this is a mortgage. As an old friend of my father-in-law,--a very unworthy one, by the way,--I could of course not press him for the interest, and, as you will see, it has never been paid; and there is now a balance of some hundred pounds additional against him. Of this I could not speak, for another reason,--we are not without the hope of inheriting something by him, and to allude to this matter would be ruinous. Keep this, then. I insist upon it. I declare to you, if you refuse, I will sell it to-morrow to the first moneylender I can find, and send you my debt in hard cash. I 've been a play-man all my life, but never a defaulter.”
There was a tone of proud indignation in the way he spoke that awed Cave to silence; for in good truth he was treating of themes of which he knew nothing whatever: and of the sort of influences which swayed gamblers, of the rules that guided and the conventionalities that bound them, he was profoundly ignorant.
”You 'll not get your money, Cave,” resumed Sewell, ”till this old fellow dies; but you will be paid at last,--of that I can a.s.sure you.
Indeed, if by any turn of luck I was in funds myself, I 'd like to redeem it. All I ask is, therefore, that you 'll not dispose of it, but hold it over in your own possession till the day--and I hope it may be an early one--it will be payable.”
Cave was in no humor to dispute anything. There was no condition to which he would not have acceded, so heartily ashamed and abashed was he by the position in which he found himself. What he really would have liked best, would have been to refuse the bond altogether, and say, Pay when you like, how you like, or, better still, not at all. This of course was not possible, and he accepted the terms proposed to him at once.
”It shall be all as you wish,” said he, hurriedly. ”I will do everything you desire; only let me a.s.sure you that I would infinitely rather this paper remained in _your_ keeping than in _mine_. I'm a careless fellow about doc.u.ments,” added he, trying to put the matter on the lesser ground of a safe custody. ”Well, well, say no more; you don't wish it, and that's enough.”
”I must be able to say,” said Sewell, gravely, ”that I never lost over night what I had not paid the next morning; and I will even ask of you to corroborate me so far as this transaction goes. There were several of your fellows at my house last night; they saw what we played for, and that I was the loser. There will be--there always is--plenty of gossip about these things, and the first question is, 'Has he-booked up?' I'm sure it's not asking more than you are ready to do, to say that I paid my debt within twenty-four hours.”
<script>