Byam Ryll felt a genuine regret that he had pushed matters so far, though Whymper himself was to blame for having shown temper, and thereby precipitated the catastrophe.  But he did not play the less skillfully on that account; and, moreover, had no rival to divide the pool with him.

“I would give five pounds if somebody would beat him,” muttered the discontented parson within Yorke’s hearing, who was standing aloof with his cigar watching the game.

“I think I could,” said the young man, quietly, “if I had five pounds.”

As the pool was two pounds, and the lives were one, this was exactly the amount of pecuniary risk to be run, and which want of the necessary funds had alone prevented the young man from incurring.

“Here is a fiver,” replied the parson, softly.

“But I really have no money,” remonstrated Yorke, though his fine face lit up for a moment with delight (for he was a gambler to the core), “nor any expectation of—­”

“Yes, yes; you have expectations enough,” answered the other, hurriedly.  “You may give me that living yet yourself—­who knows?  Take a ball, man—­take a ball.”

So, when another game commenced, the young landscape-painter, who had spent at least as much of his short life at those boards of green cloth called “public tables” as in studying the verdant hues of nature, made one of the combatants, and not a little astonished them by his performance.  He had the eye of a hawk, with the litheness of a young panther; and his prudence during the late debauch had preserved his steadiness of hand.  Mr. Theodore Fane had the misfortune to be his immediate predecessor, and was “potted” at long distances.

“By Jove!” exclaimed he, sulkily, upon losing his last life by a double, “you must have lived by your wits, young gentleman, to have learned to play pool like that.”

“I have,” returned Yorke, without moving a muscle, and preparing to strike again.  “You will come to do the same, if you play much at this game—­but your sad end will not be protracted.  You will starve to death with considerable rapidity.”

“My dear Mr. Yorke,” said Byam Ryll, approvingly, “you have won my heart, though I can’t afford to let you win my sovereigns; I like you, but I must kill you off, I see.”

“Unless—­” said Yorke.

“Unless what?” inquired Ryll, as he made his stroke at Yorke’s ball, which was quite safe, and grazed it with his own, which, gliding off another ball, found its way into a pocket.  For once, he had really allowed himself to be “put off” his aim.

“Unless you commit suicide,” replied the young fellow, smiling.  “I was about to warn you of the danger of that kiss.”

“You are worse than a highway robber, young Sir,” said the annoyed old gentleman.

“That’s true,” returned Yorke, “for I take your money and your ‘life.’”

The young fellow repaid his loan that night, besides putting half a dozen sovereigns into his own pocket; and there was other fruit from that investment.