Show ress rosemary ailyn by millicent E MANN copyright 1904 by LINCOLN CO 1 win what CHAPTER I 1 care not for an it please ou lord felton said I 1 to vary the sameness of things all pleasurable excitement being with you and your friends suppose we change the dice do you mean to he began I 1 imply nothing but what you wish implied I 1 interrupted I 1 have still a small estate in essex county why not add that also to your winnings 9 and I 1 pointed to the gold stacked at Ms elbow As you will he ed with a shrug of the shoulders which set his long wig a bobbing gil I 1 called to my man who leaned across the board opposite us throw me the dice you have lord felton was as tenacious as a miser and fought for each piece of gold for now the conditions were re versed as 1 supposed they would be upon the change of dice yet he would not could not stop the gambling fever gripped him hard I 1 aoa and won until there seemed nothing else to win nothing elsea said I 1 my lord felton had many resources I 1 will stake the hand of lady mary felton against all he hissed as he flung his hand out upon the table while his fingers twitched the all indicated was the wealth worth a less er king s realm piled before me his words produced a momentary hush of astonishment even among his followers A hat belonging to some one was pushed from the table the brooch fastening its plume struck the floor with a slight noise but it sound ed as loud to our strained ears as an explosion we started though they who knew him ought to have been sur at nothing he might either say or do you will not say it is too little he said then his eyes like a basi ilsk s swept the lowering faces of the men some cowered and shrank back others assumed an indifference quite at variance with their previous ag tation sir raoul dwight glowered back at him he had dared take their id I 1 and treat it as clay and in that chehad dared much recovering my surprise I 1 mur murea something trite enough about being most happy to risk all and more for the happiness of obtaining the lady s hand menial brought him a quill and an ink horn he wrote an acknowledgment elaborately and sprinkled it with sand he dallied doing it as though he gloated over the deed and dared anyone to take umbrage either at it or him when he had the paper to his satisfaction he placed it in the center of the table I 1 luied the gold beside it the light from innumerable candles shone down upon the long table black with age it passed through the bot ties filled with liquor and made splashes of red upon the dark grain of the wood it played upon the gold that scintillated and sparkled like the light in a s eye the hunting feast was long over the board had been cleared and the men grouped about it were in charac te attitudes gaming it was the usual ending to a day s sport gil and myself had ridden over from long haut for the hunt at the bidding of master arnold and as was expected we stayed for the gaming not that expectations or contumelious lips would have held us had we not been as fond of a game of chance as any one of the gay bloods from london town who made up the party it had been a day of rare sport time had not been wasted in our de sire to kill and as a result many deer and boars lay low that yesterday bounded through the forest all showed upon their person how furl bously they had come jowl against earth a bushes brambles and dirt one fellow sat with a broken arm in a ling dicing with his left hand while harcourt nym had his coat on with the wrong side faced out whether to keep it from there was no need or to propitiate that janus faced damsel fortune there was great need no one knew but him self others had turned the lace back from their hands and here and there a wig lav tossed oft in the heat and excitement of the game the room where we sat was long and narrow the narrow part was broadened somewhat by many dia mond shaped panes of glass set op each other at the far end a fire of logs burned the smoke from the pipes pf the men floated there to be sucked up by its red mouth lord felton had only joined us upon our reaching the lodge hunting was too strenuous an exercise for him while feasting and gaming were the elixir of his life he had chosen me a stranger for his partner in the evening sport why I 1 should have so signalized I 1 knew not dunles i it was that the londoners familiar with his reputation and more than one good cause shunned him or perhaps he had heard that the cof fers of the house of long haut not depleted of their treasures at first I 1 had looked at him with curiosity he was small js a woman and as slender everything about him was minute except his wig an enormous affair it hung about his shoulders in many ringlets and made his head seem out of all proportion to his body his features were clear cut as a cameo his eyes were of that cold grey from which all the blue was washed but they held you he was the dandy and the exquisite his ways were caressing and his manner quite irresistible he had one becu while his face never lacked repose as though he habitually masked his thoughts lest you read them in his fingers he gave them full vent his weaknesses were exposed hands small and oft and white hands with long flexile fingers hands perpetually in motion said that he could cheat ca jole or win ones fortune from one as easily as the turning of a hand over and the matter of it was that one never quite understood how he had accomplished it being at the time so carried away by his fascinations of all the dissipated men of the day he was considered the most danger ous but this I 1 learned afterwards he began by winning that should have taught him caution how slight a thing will sometimes change the course of events A menial in filling the glass of my neighbor jogged my elbow I 1 looked up as he mumbled his excuses and caught the warning sent to me by gil then I 1 let my eyes roam casually from face to face I 1 read upon them what made me pull myself together with a jerk and throw off the spell I 1 had been under the spell of a limpid tongue discourse di scours what I 1 have won 1 shall know how to keep said ing the gay doings of a fashionable world of which I 1 then knew little these gay sparks from london and especially this old dissolute one would bleed me they thought me a novice it was laughable I 1 knew cards and dice as I 1 knew my sword many a night gil and I 1 had made of gaming a pastime it had been his part in my education and he bad not found me a dullard I 1 saw with narrowed eyes the pile of gold mine which my lord fel ton had stacked at hi right I 1 saw the men for the most part given up their play to watch a deeper game cupidity in their eyes waiting acx bously their turn at the poor dupe and I 1 realized that unknown to my self I 1 had occupied the center of the stage it was then when I 1 saw the supercilious looks and widening of lips which owners cared not to hide that the blood of an ancestor who had once staked his life on a throw of a dice thrust itself to the ng back the more cautious blood of the harleys it was then that I 1 had proposed the change of dice now I 1 must plead that the passion of gaming was strong upon me also I 1 cared no more for lord felton s daughter mary than to any village maid she was no more to me true I 1 had heard of her who had nota of her beauty her conquests the duels fought for love of her and more although she had been in london but a few years she had set all hearts agog feminine ones with envy mas cullee ones with desire it was said that she possessed all the fascination of her father without his dissolute ness a rare thing in king charles court when the men recovered from the momentary consternation into which lord felton s words had thrown them and my lord himself had drained his of wine to perhaps still bis fluttering fingers we resumed the play watched by all tyes prayers and curses were upon bearded clean shaven and lips that had never known a razor but unuttered I 1 read in their faces while they scorned lord felton and cursed him to the lowest depths they yet prayed that he might win they that were not wont to pray his was the first throw and he won the next was mine we were even AH now depended upon the last dpn ning of the dice he took them up and rattled them still with a rhythm leal movement and threw them out upon the table without the least show of bravado only an outward ence to be wondered at as if it were an every day event to gamble away a daughter s happiness perhaps a for tune certainly it came up double six he leaned back complacently yet no triumph appeared upon his face he was not the man to shout before the battle was won the men who had heretofore hardly seemed to breathe now took time to draw their breaths in with a relieved sigh I 1 threw it came up I 1 iau won then he arose bowed and sat down again his face went white there was excuse the stakes had been great truly a marvel and young he managed to say for the great control he knew so well how to exercise held him the king himself would be outdone his friends and kinsmen crowded about him an explosive damme came from a and it was as a clap of thunder preludes a storm chairs were tipped out of the way and swords were drawn the room was in an uproar the storm was about me Pass natures were ready to overstep the bounds of decency and pro derce I 1 stood up and the crowd while I 1 calculi ed whether gil and I 1 could cit our way through them it the affair came to a he faithful fellow had no doubts about it and stood beady at my side for anything gentlemen drawled I 1 A most unusual proceeding really there 1 one too many of you too many for you if you think to steal away with that bit of paper cried sir raoul dwight and he lurched forward as though to take lt when quick as thought I 1 had pinned it with my sword to the table what I 1 have won I 1 shall know how to keep said I 1 never by god never belched forth the fellow in a mad fury gentlemen will you permit such a to happeny he aed the choicest flower be left tor this man s picking 7 shall this fellow for a few happy throws of dice be let to take with an indifferent hand what we have looked with yearning eyes towards shall it be permitted never I 1 say ne er I 1 waited until their clamoring cries had ceased then said that should have been thought of before the game it Is rather too late methinks you shall not leave here with that paper in your possession said sir raoul dwight shall and shall not are words which take little breath in the say ing and they come rather too trip bingly from your sir raoul dwight I 1 answered him I 1 think th lady wilt thank her kinsman and half her to day I 1 turned to the assem bled party I 1 spoke impressively for it looked as if it might come to a brawl tor god knows I 1 had lit tie desire though why I 1 should have regard for the ladys name and care whether it was the cause of a fracas at a gambling table since her father and her lover were equally lacking in all sense of decorum I 1 do not know some things are innate in people I 1 hated to see a proud name bandied about in a way that should call the blush to a fair chaek to te if i linued |