All day of the 10th, with
grudging intervals for food, and with one long absence
on the part of Tommy, from which he returned dripping
with the case of sherry, they continued to deal and
stake. Night fell; they drew the closer to the fire.
It was maybe two in the morning, and Tommy was selling
his deal by auction, as usual with that timid player,
when Carthew, who didn't intend to bid, had a moment of
leisure and looked round him. He beheld the moonlight
on the sea, the money piled and scattered in that
incongruous place, the perturbed faces of the players.
He felt in his own breast the familiar tumult; and it
seemed as if there rose in his ears a sound of music,
and the moon seemed still to shine upon a sea, but the
sea was changed, and the Casino towered from among
lamp-lit gardens, and the money clinked on the green
board. "Good God!" he thought, "am I gambling again?"
He looked the more curiously about the sandy table. He
and Mac had played and won like gamblers; the mingled
gold and silver lay by their places in the heap.
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