. He'd drink you under the
table before he'd begun to hiccough.... You're not much of a lad for
the fillies, what?"

"I find the variety here a little exotic," Jacob confessed.

"You like the homemade article, eh? Not sure that you ain't right.
Gad, I'm glad I met you!"

Jacob, who might have been dining alone, reciprocated the sentiment as
they solemnly toasted one another.

"Look here, old thing," the young man insisted, "we're pals. You've
crossed the Rubicon, so to speak--tipped up the ready at the right
moment and started me on the road to fortune. We'll drop the 'Mr.' and
the 'Lord'-ing. Felix and Jacob, eh? Good! My love, Jacob. Come along
with me into the Rooms and see me touch up those Johnnies to-night."

Jacob shook his head.

"I prefer the Club," he said, "and if you take my advice, you'll put a
thousand in your pocketbook and have a flutter with the three
hundred."

"Jacob," the young man declared, "I feel to-night as though Jove had
looked down from Olympus and winked the other eye at me. You get me? I
feel in luck, steeped in the magic of it; couldn't do wrong, couldn't
pick a loser if I tried. Seven times in eleven spins of the wheel
number fourteen came up this afternoon, and to-night I can see number
twenty-nine just the same way. Number five table, Jacob, that I'm
going to hit. The croupier who'll be on at ten o'clock has a sort of
double squint. I'll send him to the vaults, sure as this Pommery is
about the best tipple I ever drank.... Aren't you going to have a
flutter yourself?"

"Gambling doesn't appeal very much to me," Jacob admitted.

The young man who desired to be called Felix sighed.

"Doesn't gamble," he mused, "drinks moderately, and likes his fairies
good. Jacob dear, I must introduce you some day to the home circle.
You were certainly made for domesticity. Did you tell Cook's man about
yourself when you booked for Monte Carlo?"

"I told him that I'd heard it was a good place for winter golf," Jacob
replied, smiling. "If you've finished talking nonsense, perhaps you
will bring your mighty intellect to bear upon the question of liqueur
brandies."

"Are you feeling at all festive?" Felixstowe enquired.

"Absolutely," Jacob answered.

"Then consult Louis and leave it to him. You know what Pierpont Morgan
called Monte Carlo?--'the bleeding place for millionaires.' Louis will
see you through it."

The dinner came to a close in a little burst of glory, Louis himself
bringin