“Now then, Lubi,” cried the lord, “which is it?  Come on; just this once.”

Lubi demurred.  “You toss too well for me; last night you did win seven times running—­damn!”

“Come on, Lubi; here it is flat on the table.”

Mike longed to pull his money out of his pocket, but he had not been on terms with Lubi since he had called him a Marchand de Soupe, an insult which Lubi had not been able to forgive, and it was the restaurateur’s women-folk who welcomed him back to town after his long absence.

“What an air of dissipation, hilarity, and drink there is about the place!” said Mike.  “Look!” and his eyes rested on two gross men—­music-hall singers—­who sat with their agent, sipping Chartreuse.  “Three years ago,” he said, “they were crying artichokes in an alley, and the slum is still upon their faces.”

No one else was in the long gallery save the waiters, who dozed far away in the mean twilight of the glass-roofing.

“How jolly it is,” said Mike, “to order your own dinner!  Let’s have some oysters—­three dozen.  We’ll have a Chateaubriand—­what do you say?  And an omelette soufflee—­what do you think?  And a bottle of champagne.  Waiter, bring me the wine-list.”

Frank had spoken to Mike because he felt lonely; the world had turned a harsh face on him.  Lord Mount Rorke had married, and the paper was losing its circulation.

“And how is the paper going?”

“Pretty well; just the same as usual.  Do you ever see it?  What do you think of my articles?”

“Your continuation of my series, Lions of the Season? Very good; I only saw one or two.  I have been living in the country, and have hardly seen a paper for the last year and a half.  You can’t imagine the life I have been leading.  Nice kind people ’tis true; I love them, but they never open a book.  That is all very nice for a time—­for three months, for six, for a year—­but after that you feel a sense of alienation stealing over you.”

Mike saw that Frank had only met with failure; so he was tempted to brandish his successes.  He gave a humorous description of his friends—­how he had picked them up; how they had supplied him with horses to ride and guns to shoot with.

“And what about the young ladies?  Were they included in the hospitality?”

“They included themselves.  How delicious love in a country house is!—­and how different from other love it is, to follow a girl dressed for dinner into the drawing-room or library, and to take her by the waist, to feel a head leaning towards you and a mouth closing upon yours!  Above all, when the room is in darkness—­better still in the firelight—­the light of the fire on her neck....  How good these oysters are!  Have some more champagne.”

Then, in a sudden silence, a music-hall gent was heard to say that some one was a splendid woman, beautifully developed.

“Now then, Lubi, old man, I toss you for a sovereign,” cried a lord, who looked like a sandwich-man in his ample driving-coat.