It is gambling just the same; it is
wicked; it leads to so much that is bad. It was my grandfather's ruin,
and he knew it and repented bitterly, for it left his son nothing but
poverty, and that is why we are so poor, father and I; gambling did it
all."
There were tears in Bessie's eyes, and they went straight to Jack's
heart. He was not an inveterate gambler, though he had lost and won
large sums at Monte Carlo and Baden Baden, when the tables were open
there, and, like most Englishmen, he never played whist that something
was not staked; it gave zest to the game, which to him would be very
insipid without it: but Bessie's eyes could have made him face the
cannon's mouth, if need be, and he said to her at once:
"I promise that, too. I will never play again for money with anyone,
but for my reward you must let me visit you at Stoneleigh sometime."
"Oh, yes, you may," she answered, "but I warn you it is a poor place to
come to, with only old Anthony and Dorothy to do anything. I have to
work, and you may have to work, too, and do other things than mending
father's coat.
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