I have
watched him now for three rounds."
"And so have I," added Colonel Le Grice.
Gilly sprang to his feet. For a moment he seemed disposed to brazen it
out; then he read his sentence in the face of those who had detected
and now judged him. There was no appeal: he was doomed. From
henceforth he was socially and morally dead, and, without a word, he
slunk away from the house.
The buzz of the ball-room soon caught up the ugly scandal, and tossed
it wildly from lip to lip. "Mr. Jillingham caught cheating at cards!"
Everyone said, of course, they had suspected it all along; now every
one knew it as a fact, except those most nearly concerned. To them it
came last. To Phillipa, whose heart it stabbed as with a knife, cut
through and through; then to Mrs. Purling, who, a little taken aback
by the sudden exodus of her guests, asked innocently what it meant,
upon which some one, without knowing who she was, told her the exact
truth.
Quite stunned by the terrible shock, dazed, terrified, was the
heiress, scarcely capable of comprehending what had occurred. Then
with a sad, scared face, motioning Phillipa on one side, who, equally
white and grief-stricken, would have helped her, she crept slowly
upstairs, feeling that at one blow the whole fabric of her social
repute was tumbled in the dust.
Pages:
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461