"
"Hughling Elliot! Of course!" Helen exclaimed. She ducked her head
immediately, for at the sound of his name he looked up. The game went on
for a few minutes, and was then broken up by the approach of a wheeled
chair, containing a voluminous old lady who paused by the table and
said:--
"Better luck to-night, Susan?"
"All the luck's on our side," said a young man who until now had kept
his back turned to the window. He appeared to be rather stout, and had a
thick crop of hair.
"Luck, Mr. Hewet?" said his partner, a middle-aged lady with spectacles.
"I assure you, Mrs. Paley, our success is due solely to our brilliant
play."
"Unless I go to bed early I get practically no sleep at all," Mrs. Paley
was heard to explain, as if to justify her seizure of Susan, who got up
and proceeded to wheel the chair to the door.
"They'll get some one else to take my place," she said cheerfully. But
she was wrong. No attempt was made to find another player, and after the
young man had built three stories of a card-house, which fell down, the
players strolled off in different directions.
Mr. Hewet turned his full face towards the window. They could see that
he had large eyes obscured by glasses; his complexion was rosy, his
lips clean-shaven; and, seen among ordinary people, it appeared to be an
interesting face. He came straight towards them, but his eyes were fixed
not upon the eavesdroppers but upon a spot where the curtain hung in
folds.
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