are looking on.'

"'I DON'T think,' said Roger knowingly; 'of course you're a syndicate
and aunt is putting the stakes on for all of you. Anyone can tell by
your looks when the wrong horse wins that you've got a stake on.'

"Aunt and nephew had supper alone that night, or at least they would
have if Bertie hadn't joined them; all the Brimley Bomefields had
headaches.

"The aunt carried them all off to Dieppe the next day and set cheerily
about the task of winning back some of her losses. Her luck was
variable; in fact, she had some fair streaks of good fortune, just
enough to keep her thoroughly amused with her new distraction; but on
the whole she was a loser. The Brimley Bomefields had a collective
attack of nervous prostration on the day when she sold out a quantity
of shares in Argentine rails. 'Nothing will ever bring that money
back,' they remarked lugubriously to one another.

"'Veronique at last could bear it no longer, and went home; you see, it
had been her idea to bring the aunt on this disastrous expedition, and
though the others did not cast the fact verbally in her face, there was
a certain lurking reproach in their eyes which was harder to meet than
actual upbraidings. The other two remained behind, forlornly mounting
guard over their aunt until such time as the waning of the Dieppe
season should at last turn her in the direction of home and safety.
They made anxious calculations as to how little 'good money' might,
with reasonable luck, be squandered in the meantime. Here, however,
their reckoning went far astray; the close of the Dieppe season merely
turned their aunt's thoughts in search of some other convenient
gambling resort. 'Show a cat the way to the dairy--' I forget how the
proverb goes on, but it summed up the situation as far as the Brimley
Bomefields' aunt was concerned. She had been introduced to unexplored
pleasures, and found them greatly to her liking, and she was in no
hurry to forgo the fruits of her newly acquired knowledge. You see,
for the first time in her life the old thing was thoroughly enjoying
herself; she was losing money, but she had plenty of fun and excitement
over the process, and she had enough left to do very comfortably on.
Indeed, she was only just learning to understand the art of doing
oneself well. She was a popular hostess, and in return her
fellow-gamblers were always ready to entertain her to dinners and
suppers when their luck was in. Her nieces, wh