rom Cork the self-same day----"
he began. Then he stopped considerately; and added under his breath,
"The Almighty God be good to us all!"

Clodagh took the cards from him, and stood very still, fingering them
nervously. At any other time, the thought of playing with cards that
belonged to the dead would have filled her with repugnance; but
to-night all ordinary standards had been lost--all the world was chaos.
She was like one who is slipping down into a bottomless abyss, and
stretches desperate hands towards any straw that might offer respite.

She never changed her position while the table was being cleared; her
only sign of emotion still being shown by the spasmodic way in which
she passed the cards between her fingers. When at last the cloth had
been removed and the candles replaced, she came quickly across the room
and stood looking down upon her cousin.

She still mechanically shuffled the cards; but her glance, as it rested
on Asshlin, was unconscious and absorbed, seeing only its own mental
pictures.

"What shall we play, Larry? What game can two people play?"

Asshlin looked up.

"Piquet," he said, "or euchre."

She nodded.

"Euchre! Yes, euchre!" She drew a chair up to the table and sat down.
"What stakes?"

Asshlin looked uncertain.

"You say!" he suggested a little diffidently.

She gave a nervous start, as a fresh gale shook the windows.

"Thirty shillings a game? Twenty shillings a game?"

For an instant he looked at her amazed; but seeing the unconsciousness
of her expression, his breeding forbade him to offer any objection.
With a reckless excitement he had never before had opportunity to feel,
he leant back in his chair, and taking up the glass Burke had set
beside him, poured out some port and drank it.

"Thirty shillings a game!" he said magnificently.

Clodagh did not seem to hear; certainly she saw nothing of his scruple
and his yielding. Her own thoughts rode and spurred her, pressing her
forward in a wild, panic-stricken search for oblivion.

"Come, Larry! Play!--play! I feel"--she paused and laughed
hysterically--"I feel that, if I were a man to-night, I should drink
all the port in that bottle! I want to forget everything. Play!--play!"

Asshlin picked up the cards that she had laid upon the table. He could
not understand her in this new mood; but he was satisfied not to
understand her. He felt stimulated--lifted above himself--as he had
never been before.

For two hours