ls and facts, I am giving you the combined evidence of
several witnesses, which it took many days to collect and to classify.

"It appears that young Mr. Ashley, though very popular in society, was
generally believed to be in what is vulgarly termed 'low water'; up to
his eyes in debt, and mortally afraid of his dad, whose younger son he
was, and who had on one occasion threatened to ship him off to Australia
with a L5 note in his pocket if he made any further extravagant calls
upon his paternal indulgence.

"It was also evident to all John Ashley's many companions that the
worthy M.F.H. held the purse-strings in a very tight grip. The young
man, bitten with the desire to cut a smart figure in the circles in
which he moved, had often recourse to the varying fortunes which now and
again smiled upon him across the green tables in the Harewood Club.

"Be that as it may, the general consensus of opinion at the Club was
that young Ashley had changed his last 'pony' before he sat down to a
turn of roulette with Aaron Cohen on that particular night of February
6th.

"It appears that all his friends, conspicuous among whom was Mr. Walter
Hatherell, tried their very best to dissuade him from pitting his luck
against that of Cohen, who had been having a most unprecedented run of
good fortune. But young Ashley, heated with wine, exasperated at his own
bad luck, would listen to no one; he tossed one L5 note after another on
the board, he borrowed from those who would lend, then played on parole
for a while. Finally, at half-past one in the morning, after a run of
nineteen on the red, the young man found himself without a penny in his
pockets, and owing a debt--gambling debt--a debt of honour of L1500 to
Mr. Aaron Cohen.

"Now we must render this much maligned gentleman that justice which was
persistently denied to him by press and public alike; it was positively
asserted by all those present that Mr. Cohen himself repeatedly tried to
induce young Mr. Ashley to give up playing. He himself was in a delicate
position in the matter, as he was the winner, and once or twice the
taunt had risen to the young man's lips, accusing the holder of the bank
of the wish to retire on a competence before the break in his luck.

"Mr. Aaron Cohen, smoking the best of Havanas, had finally shrugged his
shoulders and said: 'As you please!'

"But at half-past one he had had enough of the player, who always lost
and never paid--never could pay, so