"There is the end of that episode," said the foreign voice. "Le mari jaloux has had enough of us. Your women in England are taught never to play with fire."
"I might reply that yours are all pyrotechnists," said the other, with a laugh.
The clatter of plates and the jingle of glasses, as the waiter laid the table for supper, drowned their voices, and L'Estrange dropped off asleep soon after. A hearty burst of laughter at last aroused him. It came from the adjoining room, where the strangers were still at table, though it was now nigh daybreak.
"Yes," said he of the foreign accent, "I must confess it. I never made a lucky hit in my life without the ungrateful thought of how much luckier it might have been."
"It is your Italian blood has given you that temperament."
"I knew you 'd say so, Philip; before my speech was well out, I felt the reply you 'd make me. But let me tell you that you English are not a whit more thankful to fortune than we are; but in your matter-of-fact way you accept a benefit as your just due, while we, more conscious of our deservings, always feel that no recompense fully equalled what we merited. And so it is that ever since that morning at Furnival's Inn, I keep on asking myself, Why twenty thousand? Why not forty--why not twice forty?"
"I was quite prepared for all this. I think I saw the reaction beginning as you signed the paper."
"No, there you wrong me, Philip. I wrote boldly, like a man who felt that he was making a great resolve, and could stand by it. You 'll never guess when what you have called 'the reaction' set in."
"I 'll tell you. You remember our visit to Castello. You thought it a strange caprice of mine to ask the lawyer whether, now that all was finally settled between us, I might be permitted to see the house--which, as the family had left, could be done without any unpleasantness. I believe my request amused _him_ as much as it did _you_; he thought it a strange caprice, but he saw no reason to refuse it, and I saw he smiled as he sat down to write the note to the housekeeper. I have no doubt that he thought, 'It is a gambler's whim;' he wants to see the stake he played for, and what he might perhaps have won had he had courage to play out the game.' _You_ certainly took that view of it."