E. Phillips Oppenheim

“ Cray expressed his relief.
“We're pretty harmless, take us all round,” he ventured.
“You may or may not be,” the lady replied. “I have never allowed a man to take any liberties with me. I don't trust them. At the same time,” she went on, “a man has his place in a woman's life, and because I have chosen to keep him outside mine for the last fourteen years, that does not necessarily mean that I intend to preserve the same attitude for the rest of my life. Indeed, the contrary is the case. I intend to cultivate men friends.” ”

“ Esholt was deathly pale. “I have your four aces, sir, he announced. “I kept three and a kicker.”
“You may marry,” Mr. Cray suggested.
Mrs. Richard Green looked at him very hard.
“I may,” she admitted. “On the other hand, I may not. I am a woman who is free from all prejudices. Travel has broadened my mind. My outlook is different from other women's. Marriage has its advantages and disadvantages. Besides, the person whom I might choose,” she went on, still looking fixedly at Mr. Cray, “might be a married man.”
“Sure!” Mr. Cray assented, a little shaken. ”

“ Cray had been taking notice of her square-toed, masculine shoes and her thick worsted stockings, “I am free to admit that the time has come when I am a little weary. I propose to settle down in London, make friends and lead a domestic life. For the first time in many years I find myself free and disposed to seek companionship.” ”

“ I occasionally indulge in a game of cards myself. But extravagance is a vice to which I have the strongest objection.”
“Extravagance,” Mr. Cray pronounced, “is what you might term a relative quality. In my younger days I worked hard and established a successful business. I have only one daughter and no other near relatives. It gives me pleasure to spend my money.” ”

“ Never knew a place where there were so many middle-aged bachelors.”
“When I fix my affections upon a man,” Mrs. Green said firmly, “his state will make no difference to me. Married or single, I shall have him. If the law cannot join us, I shall make my own law. That is the sort of woman I am, Mr. Cray. That is the sort of spirit which has brought me safely through savage countries.”
Mr. Cray made frantic signals of distress to the manufacturer of reapers, who was just passing. The latter responded like a man.
“We are waiting for you forward, Mr. Cray,” he announced. ”

“ You may be what you seem. I don't know. You handle the cards too slickly for my liking, and if you want to know my opinion of you, you can have it.”
“My dear Mrs. Green!” Mr. Cray faltered.
“Don't 'my dear' me!” that lady thundered, striking the table with her fist “I've formed my opinion of you, Mr. Cray. I believe you to be a professional gambler, and not one penny of my money do I part with.”
A sudden wave of emotion seemed to pass over the little company. Blanche Esholt's face was hidden in her handkerchief, Thomson's was buried in his arms. Mr. Cray himself was pained and humiliated. ”

“ AT dinner-time that evening Mr. Cray received a further shock. In the chair exactly opposite his own, which had been vacant since Toulon, he discovered Mrs. Richard Green.
“I have changed my place,” she announced. “I thought I should like to come to your table.”
The Captain, seated a few places away, smiled. The young invalid officer exchanged a glance of amusement with his sister. The manufacturer of reapers, who was at a table some distance away, telegraphed his congratulations across the room. Mr. Cray, without knowing exactly why, felt his savoir faire deserting him. ”

“ I find that poker is an illegal game. I am surprised at you, sir,” she went on, directly addressing Mr. Cray, “a man of your age and with your experience of life, taking advantage of these young people here and stripping them ruthlessly of their—their pocket-money.”
“We don't complain,” Esholt intervened, with the air of a martyr.
“It was a fair game,” Thomson sighed. ”

“ Cray assented weakly. “I guess I get on pretty well, though.”
“I suppose you think you do,” Mrs. Green rejoined reprovingly. “You men never know when you're well off and you never know when you're badly off. You're a poor sort of creatures, anyhow, to go wandering about the world by yourselves.”
“I'm not always alone,” Mr. Cray protested. ”

“ My three friends are Mr. Graham, Captain Thomson and Mr. Leach.”
The three shook hands with Mr. Cray, who sat down genially amongst them and gave lavish orders to the expectant steward. They were all very much of the same type as Esholt himself. One of them had been in the Indian Army with Esholt, and the other two, after a period of service, one in Mesopotamia and the other in Egypt, had recently been demobilized.
“We play quite a small game,” Captain Esholt repeated, a little nervously. “The fact of it is we are all of us pretty hard up. We ante two shillings, if you don't mind.” ”

“ There's your money. I can only say that we are sorry. We are entirely at your mercy.”
Mr. Cray stood by his chair. The steward had gone into the inner bar. It chanced that there was no one else in the room.
“Will you give me your word of honor, all of you,” he said, “never to attempt this sort of thing again?”
The reply was unanimous and convincing. Mr. Cray resumed his seat.
“Boys,” he proposed, “I guess we'd better call these chips in and start the game again. Mrs. Richard Green is coming to join us. Don't look so astonished, all of you. Give me the chips. ”

“ It is all very well to plunder children, but there are other men and women about with brains besides myself. Some day or other you will be in trouble, and if ever a witness is needed to testify against you, they can call up Mrs. Richard Green!”
SHE made a dignified and triumphant exit, but it was some minutes before Mr. Cray, wiping the tears from his eyes could obtain a hearing.
“Now I've just a word to say to you young people,” he began seriously. “I want you to understand that though I'm a professional gambler when it suits me I am also what Mrs. ”

“ OPPENHEIM
“I have the name,” she con-
tinued,“of being a man-hater.
I am nothing of the sort.”
MR. JOSEPH P. CRAY was exceedingly comfortable on board the steamship Omata, homeward bound from Toulon to Tilbury. His stateroom was very much to his liking, the boat was clean and not overcrowded. ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1946, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 77 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”