's house in Sundridge during the next three or four
days. After that you know my lodgings in the Wardrobe at Whitehall. I
shall be delighted to receive your messenger, if it is your pleasure,
after you have heard what I have to say."

His sword disappeared, and his smile broadened to a grim laugh: "You're
right, baron. Pardon my haste. There's ample time, ample time."

Turning to my cousin, I took up my thread: "Master Hamilton is penniless,
which is no small failing in itself. Therefore he lives by gambling,
which might be excusable if he did not cheat. In gambling, you know,
cousin, the mere law of chance will not put much money in a man's purse.
Good luck is but another name for skill in trickery. If one would thrive
by cards and dice, one must be a thief."

There was another angry movement by Hamilton, which I interrupted,
smiling, bowing, and saying, "Let us talk this matter over calmly,
smilingly, if possible."

"I'll smile when I can," returned Hamilton, made more angry, if that were
possible, by a paradoxical inclination to laugh. "Proceed, baron,
proceed! I am becoming interested in myself."

Frances gave a nervous little laugh, looked first to Hamilton, then to me
and back again, as though she would ask what it all meant, and I
continued:--

"As I have said, Frances, Master Hamilton and his friends live by
cheating at cards and other games in a manner to make all decent men
avoid play with them. They pluck strangers and feather their purses from
new geese who do not know their methods. They also derive considerable
revenue from passe women who have more wealth than beauty, are more
brazen than modest, and more generous than chaste."

"I'll not listen to another word!" exclaimed Frances, looking up to
Hamilton in evident wonder at his complacency.

"Just one moment longer, Frances," I insisted. "Master Hamilton's
intimate friends have been known on more than one occasion to stoop to
the crimes of theft, robbery, and even murder to obtain money, and have
escaped punishment only because of royal favor. I do not say that Master
Hamilton has ever participated in these crimes, but he knew of them, did
not condemn them, helped the criminals to escape justice, and retained
the guilty men as his associates and nearest friends. Add to this list
the fact that Hamilton is a roue and a libertine, to whom virtue is but a
jest, and with whom no pure woman, knowing him, would be seen alone, and
I believe I have drawn