'We'll keep an eye on him,' Miles Grendall had said.

'You may do as you like, but I'm not going to watch any one,' Grasslough had replied.

Miles 'had watched,' and had watched in vain, and it may as well be said at once that Sir Felix, with all his faults, was not as yet a blackleg.

Both of them now owed Sir Felix a considerable sum of money, as did also Dolly Longestaffe, who was not present on this occasion.

Latterly very little ready money had passed hands,--very little in proportion to the sums which had been written down on paper,-- though Sir Felix was still so well in funds as to feel himself justified in repudiating any caution that his mother might give him.
When I.O.U.'s have for some time passed freely in such a company as that now assembled the sudden introduction of a stranger is very disagreeable, particularly when that stranger intends to start for San Francisco on the following morning.