His wife rose quickly, and stood in front of him, "I’ll come East with you, Hugh—anyway, for a time. It’s only fair."
"Quite," agreed Staunton. "It’s only fair."
"Not at all," remarked Massingham, decidedly. "I wouldn’t dream of accepting such a sacrifice. It’s a totally different matter if I win it at cards: then I shall hold you to it. Otherwise I go East alone. I have, I think, a certain say in the matter, and my mind is made up."
He turned to Staunton, who was staring at him open-mouthed: then he glanced at Delia, and she, for the first time, was looking at Jimmy Staunton.
"I suppose," he remarked, suddenly, "that I’m not making any mistake? You do wish to marry Delia, don’t you, Mr. Staunton?"
For a moment that gentleman seemed to find difficulty in speaking. Then—"Of course," he muttered. "Of course."
"Good!" said Massingham. "Then we’ll cut. Ace low—low wins."
He put the pack on a small table by the other man: then he turned away.
"But, Hugh," his wife laid her hand on his arm, "it’s impossible—it’s——"
"Not at all, Delia. It’s all quite simple. Have you cut?"
"I’ve cut the King of Hearts." Staunton was standing up. "So it looks as if I lose." His voice seemed hardly to indicate that the blow had prostrated him.
Massingham turned round, while his wife’s breath came sharply.
"It does—undoubtedly," he remarked. "Yes—mine’s the two of clubs. So you come, Delia." He broke off abruptly, his eyes fixed on the chair in which Staunton had been sitting. The next moment he stepped forward and pulled a card from the crack between the seat and the side. "The ace of diamonds," he said, slowly. "What is this card doing here? I don’t quite understand, Mr. Staunton. Ace low—low wins—and the ace of diamonds in your chair. I didn’t watch you cut—but did you not want to win?"
"I—I—don’t know how it got there," stammered Staunton, foolishly. "I didn’t put it there."
"Then one rather wonders who did," said Massingham, coldly. "It makes things a little difficult."
For a moment or two there was silence: then Delia spoke.
"On the contrary," she remarked, icily, "it seems to me to make them very easy. Good-night, Mr. Staunton. I shall not be at home to you in future."
And when Hugh Massingham returned a few minutes later, having shown the speechless and semi-dazed Staunton the front door, his wife had gone to her room.