hearts. She wavered, and Tisdale saw the cards tremble in
her hand. "Four diamonds," she said at last. The men passed, and Marcia
doubled. Then Morganstein led a lily, and the lieutenant spread his hand
on the table. There were six clubs; in diamonds a single trey.

But Mrs. Weatherbee was radiant. She moved a little and glanced back at
Elizabeth, inviting her to look at her hand. She might as well have said:
"You see, I have only to lead out trumps and establish clubs."

Marcia played a diamond on her partner's second lead of spades, and led
the ace of hearts, following with the king; the fourth round Frederic
trumped over Mrs. Weatherbee and led another lily. Mrs. Feversham used her
second diamond and, returning with a heart, saw her partner trump again
over Mrs. Weatherbee. It was miserable. They gathered in the book before
the lead fell to her. The next deal the cards deserted her, and after that
the lieutenant blundered. But even though the ruby was inevitably lost,
she finished the rubber pluckily; the flush deepened in her cheek; the
blue fires flamed in her eyes. "You thoroughbred!" Morganstein repeated
thickly. "You thoroughbred!"

To Tisdale it was unendurable. He rose and crossed to the farther side of
the desk. The _Aquila_, rounding the northern end of Bainbridge Island,
had come into Agate Pass; the tide ran swift in rips and eddies between
close wooded shores, but these things no longer caught his attention. The
scene he saw was the one he had put behind him, and in the calcium light
of his mind, one figure stood out clearly from the rest. Had he not known
this woman was a spendthrift? Had he not suspected she inherited this vice
from her father, that old gambler of the stock exchange. Was it not for
this reason he had determined to hold that last half interest in the
Aurora mine? Still, still, she had not shown the skill of long practice;
she had not played with ordinary caution. And had not Elizabeth
remonstrated, as though her loss was inevitable? Every one had been
undeniably surprised. Why, then, had she done this? She had told him she
was in "desperate need." Could this have been the alternative to which she
had referred?

The _Aquila's_ whistle blew, and she came around, close under a bluff,
into a small cove, on the rim of which rose the new villa. The group
behind Tisdale began to push back chairs. He turned. The game was over,
and Mrs. Feversham stood moving her hand slowly to catch the changi