whatever you
do, don't go into the stock gambling. I respect you now, and I might not
then."

The time came when she wished that she had refrained from that
expression.

But a different trend of advice came to Winn later from Jack Nickerson.

"Why don't you open a bucket shop, my boy," said that cynic, "and make
some money? I'll back you for a few thousand to start, since you were
foolish enough to part with all Page made for you out of the Rockhaven
flurry, and it's a dead sure thing. Then again you have won quite a
little notoriety out of this Weston & Hill fiasco, and men on the street
say you have a cool, level head. I tell you, open up one of those joints
and let these smart Alecs who want to get rich quick come in and lose
their money. If you keep moping around another month you will go daft,
or fall in love with Ethel Sherman over again, which means the same. I
hear you are a frequent caller there."

"I've got to spend my time somewhere," answered Winn, rather doggedly,
"and Ethel's good company."

Jack eyed him curiously.

"How the moth will flutter around the candle," he said.

"I'm in no danger there," asserted Winn, "so don't worry. Once bit,
twice shy; and as for the bucket shop, I'll have none of it. I'd as soon
open a faro bank."

"And why not?" queried Jack. "All the world loves to gamble, and most of
them do in one way or another. Even the good people who pray can't
resist grab bags and fish ponds, and until a few ultra prudes guessed it
was gambling, they were all the rage at church fairs. Even now, in
society of the best, bridge whist and whist for prizes, afternoon and
evening, flourishes on all sides. Oh, it's gamble, my boy, go where you
will; and you might as well take a hand in it and make money."

"But a bucket shop is disreputable," replied Winn, "or has that
reputation, and on par with gambling dens in fact, though protected by
law. It is worse than those in one way, for men who go in feel forced to
put up margins to save themselves, and in the end go broke. Look at the
embezzlements that crop out almost daily, and nine out of ten traceable
to a bucket shop. The law ought to force them to put up a sign, 'All ye
who enter here will lose.'"

"You have matured rapidly since you came from the island, my boy,"
laughed Nickerson, "and now you are fit to do business. Put your new
scruples in your pocket and join the crowd. Only those who make money
are considered anybody. And how they ma