"
"This afternoon," he said, raising his glass to his lips and
draining it, "I think that I must have dozed upon the lawn at Ascot.
I sat there for some time, back amongst the trees, and I think that
I must have fallen to sleep. There was a whisper in my ears and I
saw myself stripped of everything. How was it? I forget now! A
concession repudiated, a bank failure, a big slump - what does it
matter? The money was gone, and I was simply myself again, Scarlett
Trent, a labourer, penniless and of no account."
"It must have been an odd sensation," she said thoughtfully.
"I will tell you what it made me realise," be said. "I am drifting
into a dangerous position. I am linking myself to a little world
to whom, personally, I am as nothing and less than nothing. I am
tolerated for my belongings! If by any chance I were to lose these,
what would become of me?"
"You are a man," she said, looking at him earnestly; "you have the
nerve and wits of a man, what you have done before you might do
again."
"In the meantime I should be ostracised."
"By a good many people, no doubt."
He held his peace for a time, and ate and drank what was set before
him. He was conscious that his was scarcely a dinner-table manner.
He was too eager, too deeply in earnest.
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