The thought filled him with a slow, bitter anger.

He sent away his soup untasted, and he could not find heart to speak to the girl who had been the will-o'-the-wisp leading him into this evil plight.
Presently she addressed him.
"Mr.Trent!" He turned round and looked at her.
"Is it necessary for me to remind you, I wonder," she said, "that it is usual to address a few remarks--quite as a matter of form, you know--to the woman whom you bring in to dinner ?" He eyed her dispassionately.
"I am not used to making conversation," he said.

"Is there anything in the world which I could talk about likely to interest you ?" She took a salted almond from a silver dish by his side and smiled sweetly upon him.

"Dear me!" she said, "how fierce! Don't attempt it if you feel like that, please! What have you been doing since I saw you last ?--losing your money or your temper, or both ?" He looked at her with a curiously grim smile.
"If I lost the former," he said, "I should very soon cease to be a person of interest, or of any account at all, amongst your friends." She shrugged her shoulders.
"You do not strike one," she remarked, "as the sort of person likely to lose a fortune on the race-course." "You are quite right," he answered, "I think that I won money.

A couple of thousand at least." "Two thousand pounds!" She actually sighed, and lost her appetite for the oyster patty with which she had been trifling.