Cards from every hand were scattered there, and looking steadily at the men round it, John asked with intense feeling, "GENTLEMEN, _what will it profit you, if you gain the whole world and lose your own souls; for what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ?_" A dead silence followed these questions, but as John left the room with his brother, he heard an angry querulous voice exclaim, "Most outrageous! Most unusual! O croupier! croupier!" Then he was at the door.

He paid the promised pound, and as his cab was waiting, he motioned to Harry to enter it.

All the way to Charing Cross, John preserved an indignant silence and Harry copied his attitude, though the almost incessant beating of his doubled hands together showed the intense passion which agitated him.
Half an hour's drive brought them to the privacy of their hotel rooms and as quickly as they entered them, John turned on his brother like a lion brought to bay.
"How dared you," he said in a low, hard voice, "how dared you let me find you in such a place ?" "I was with gentlemen playing a quiet game.

You had no right to disturb me." "You were playing with thieves and blackguards.

There was not a gentleman in the room--no, not one." "John, take care what you say." "A man is no better than the company he keeps.