There was a yacht piano in the cabin. Villona
played a waltz for Farley and Riviere, Farley acting
as cavalier and Riviere as lady. Then an impromptu
square dance, the men devising original figures.
What merriment! Jimmy took his part with a will;
this was seeing life, at least. Then Farley got
out of breath and cried “Stop!” A man
brought in a light supper, and the young men sat down
to it for form’s sake. They drank, however:
it was Bohemian. They drank Ireland, England,
France, Hungary, the United States of America.
Jimmy made a speech, a long speech, Villona saying:
“Hear! hear!” whenever there was a pause.
There was a great clapping of hands when he sat down.
It must have been a good speech. Farley clapped
him on the back and laughed loudly. What jovial
fellows! What good company they were!
Cards! cards! The table was cleared. Villona
returned quietly to his piano and played voluntaries
for them. The other men played game after game,
flinging themselves boldly into the adventure.
They drank the health of the Queen of Hearts and of
the Queen of Diamonds. Jimmy felt obscurely the
lack of an audience: the wit was flashing.
Play ran very high and paper began to pass. Jimmy
did not know exactly who was winning but he knew that
he was losing. But it was his own fault for he
frequently mistook his cards and the other men had
to calculate his I.O.U.’s for him. They
were devils of fellows but he wished they would stop:
it was getting late. Someone gave the toast of
the yacht The Belle of Newport and then someone proposed
one great game for a finish.
The piano had stopped; Villona must have gone up on
deck. It was a terrible game. They stopped
just before the end of it to drink for luck.
Jimmy understood that the game lay between Routh and
Segouin. What excitement! Jimmy was excited
too; he would lose, of course. How much had he
written away? The men rose to their feet to play
the last tricks. talking and gesticulating. Routh
won. The cabin shook with the young men’s
cheering and the cards were bundled together.
They began then to gather in what they had won.
Farley and Jimmy were the heaviest losers.
He knew that he would regret in the morning but at
present he was glad of the rest, glad of the dark
stupor that would cover up his folly. He leaned
his elbows on the table and rested his head between
his hands, counting the beats of his temples.
The cabin door opened and he saw the Hungarian standing
in a shaft of grey light:
“Daybreak, gentlemen!”
TWO GALLANTS
The grey warm evening of August had descended
upon the city and a mild warm air, a memory of summer,
circulated in the streets. The streets, shuttered
for the repose of Sunday, swarmed with a gaily coloured
crowd. Like illumined pearls the lamps shone
from the summits of their tall poles upon the living
texture below which, changing shape and hue unceasingly,
sent up into the warm grey evening air an unchanging
unceasing murmur.
