and was kind for
a time, but was afraid of my grandmother as they all were.
Christopher--you know him of course--was a real friend to me. He'd stood
up for my father before and he stood up for me now. But what was the
use? I was wild when I saw that my grandmother was against me and was
going to do her best to ruin me. I just didn't care then--what was the
good of it all? Other people encouraged me. The set in London that hated
my people would have done something with me, but I wouldn't be held by
anyone.

"I'm not excusing myself," he said quietly, looking away from the window
and suddenly taking his judgment from her eyes.

"I know you're not," she said, smiling back to him.

"Cards finished me. I'd always loved gambling--I love it still--my
father had given me a good education in it. There were plenty of fellows
in town to take one on and--Oh! it's all such an old story now, not
worth digging up. But there was a house and a table and a young fool who
lost all he possessed and--well, did for himself. It had all been
square as far as I was concerned, but somebody had to be a scapegoat and
two or three of us were named. It was hushed up for the sake of the
young fellow's people, but everyone knew. Of course they all said, as
far as I was concerned, 'Like father like son,' and I think I minded
that more than anything----"

"Oh! I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Lizzie said.

"I give you my word of honour that it had all been straight as far as I
was concerned--gambling just as anyone might. That's what made me so
mad, to think of the rest of them--all so virtuous and good--and then
going off to Monte Carlo and losing or winning their little bit--just as
I'd done.

"I tried to brazen it out for a bit, but it was no good. Christopher
still stuck by me--otherwise it was--well, the Under Ten, you
know----"

"The Under Ten?"

"Yes--all the men and women who've done something--once--done one of the
things that you mustn't do. It mayn't have been very bad, not half so
bad as the things--the cruel, mean things--that most people do every day
of their lives, but, once it's there, you're down, you're under. There's
a regular colony of them here in London; their life's amusing. There
they are, hanging on here, keeping up some pretence of gaiety, some kind
of decency, waiting, hoping that the day will come when they'll be taken
back again, when everything will be forgotten. They pretend, bravely
enough, not to mind their snubs, not t