e on it, and nothing will civilize me.
Billy, do stop wagging that fan."

"Lord" Bill smiled a slow, twinkling smile and desisted. He was a tall,
slight man, with a faint stoop at the shoulders. He looked worthy of his
title.

"It is no use trying to treat Jacky to a becoming appreciation of social
requirements," he said, addressing himself with a sort of weary
deliberation to Mrs. Abbot. "I suggested an ice just now. She said she
got plenty on the ranch at this time of year," and he shrugged his
shoulders and laughed pleasantly.

"Well, of course. What does one want ices for?" asked the girl,
disdainfully. "I came here to dance. But, auntie, dear, where has uncle
gone? He dashed off as if he were afraid of us when we came up."

"I think he has set his mind on a game of poker, dear, and--"

"And that means he has gone in search of that detestable man, Lablache,"
Jacky put in sharply.

Her beautiful face flushed with anger as she spoke. But withal there was
a look of anxiety in her eyes.

"If he must play cards I wish he would play with some one else," she
pursued.

"Lord" Bill glanced round the room. He saw that Lablache had
disappeared.

"Well, you see, Lablache has taken a lot of money out of all of us.
Naturally we wish to get it back," he said quietly, as if in defense of
her uncle's doings.

"Yes, I know. And--do you?" The girl's tone was cutting.

"Lord" Bill shrugged. Then,--

"As yet I have not had that pleasure."

"And if I know anything of Lablache you never will," put in Mrs. Abbot,
curtly. "He is not given to parting easily. The qualification most
necessary amongst gentlemen in the days of our grandfathers was keen
gambling. You and John, had you lived in those days, might have aspired
to thrones."

"Yes--or taken to the road. You remember, even then, it was necessary to
be a 'gentleman' of the road."

"Lord" Bill laughed in his lazy fashion. His keen gray eyes were half
veiled with eyelids which, seemed too weary to lift themselves. He was a
handsome man, but his general air of weariness belied the somewhat eagle
cast of countenance which was his. Mrs. Abbot, watching him, thought
that the deplorable lassitude which he always exhibited masked a very
different nature. Jacky possibly had her own estimation of the man.
Whatever it was, her friendship for him was not to be doubted, and, on
his part, he never attempted to disguise his admiration of her.

A woman is often a much keener obser