As the men entered, and she stood up to curtsy in response to their bows, they all exclaimed in surprise and admiration. She was no longer dressed in her creation of white silk, but in the gay Russian peasant costume that Vorontzoff had brought her, having, as she told them, changed into it with the help of the other two ladies immediately on leaving the dining-room.
The rich colouring of the embroideries and the horse-shoe shaped headdress suited her dark beauty to perfection, and although men were used to seeing women in riding-boots, there seemed to them something terrifically daring in their combination with knee-high petticoats. Raising their quizzing-glasses they crowded round her like bees about a honey-pot, and even his Grace of Bridgewater was heard to declare: " 'Tis a demmed sensible costume, and for the life of me I can't think why women don't wear such short skirts habitually."
When the sensation had subsided Georgina rang for the footmen to bring in a large card-table and began to count heads as to who wished to play. The Colonel and his Grace excused themselves on the plea of wanting to talk business and repaired to the library. Lady Amelia said that she never touched a card but would be quite happy to continue with her needlework. Fox, Selwyn, Vorontzoff, Droopy and Mrs. Armistead all declared themselves enchanted to join Georgina in a game of Pharo, then she looked interrogatively at Roger.
She knew that he could not afford to play, even for stakes which would be considered quite modest by the others; and, knowing that Lady Amelia would not play, she had counted on being able to spare him the embarrassment of a refusal, by indicating that politeness enjoined that someone should keep Lady Amelia company.
Her glance, moving with apparent casualness to the spinster by the fire, clearly suggested the line of retreat that she expected him to take; but, to her surprise, he ignored it and said: "Your servant, Madam, I will take a hand with pleasure."
The seven of them then settled themselves round the big card-table and began to share out the engraved mother-of-pearl counters, which were of several different shapes. After some discussion it was agreed that the rounds should represent crowns, the squares half-guineas, the oblongs guineas and the octagonals five-pound pieces; that five pounds should be the maximum for any initial bet and that no player should be allowed to leave his stake on to double up more than five times. Roger having elected to play, Georgina had deliberately kept the stakes down as low as she reasonably could, but she was conscious that the limit must now appear pettifogging to a man like Fox who on many occasions had won or lost upwards of ten thousand pounds in a night at Brook's or Almack's; so she smiled at him and said:
"With so low a maximum, Charles, this makes but a baby game for you. I trust you'll bear with our modest habits when in the country."
"M'dear," he laughed good-humorously. " 'Tis a favour you do me; since nine times out of every ten that I play I finish up a loser."
On the cards being dealt round the first bank fell to Vorontzoff, who at once proceeded to make the lay-out from one of the spare packs.
The game required no skill, and was the simplest form of straight gamble. The banker merely laid out in a row in front of him an Ace, King, Queen, Knave and Ten, upon which the players placed their bets. He then dealt through the four-pack deck from which all the lower cards had been eliminated, laying each card face up, as he turned it over, to his right and left alternatively. At the beginning of each hand he declared whether he would pay out on the cards which fell to his right or to his left, and on the opposite pile he drew in. As each card was exposed he either won or lost on its equivalent Ace, King, Queen, Knave or Ten, until he had run through the deck, upon which the bank passed to the player on his left and the process was repeated.
Since only the banker handled the cards it was impossible for anyone to cheat at the game until the bank came to them; but, given the bank, an expert could so manipulate the pack as to ensure that certain of the cards equivalent to those on the table carrying the most money should fall upon the winning side. Roger was no expert, and the last thing he wished to do was to win money by cheating Georgina or any of her friends. When the bank came to him he meant to play one of his hidden cards against the card Vorontzoff had put his money on, and deliberately allow the Russian to catch him cheating.
While dressing he had racked his brains in vain for a legitimate method of heading the Russian off from his quarry, and the only means he had been able to think of was to force a duel upon him. However pressing his rival's attentions might be, he felt confident that Georgina set too high a value on herself to succumb to him on the night of his arrival. But given the Saturday afternoon and evening, and all Sunday, for gentle dalliance, if her inclinations tended that way and Fox stressed the urgency of winning the Russian to the interests of the Opposition, it was quite on the cards that she might grant him the opportunity for which he was obviously so eager before the week-end was out. Having already met him several times in London, that, according to the lax standards of the day, would not be unduly to cheapen herself.
Therefore, Roger had argued to himself, his object would be achieved if he could render the Russian hors de combatduring the next, twelve hours. The prospect of a duel had no terrors for him, since he had fought three already, and knew himself to be an extremely accomplished swordsman. The fact that duels were forbidden in England also gave him few qualms, as the penalties were rarely pressed unless one of the combatants was killed, and he had no intention of doing more than disabling his potential adversary. The problem that remained was how to force a quarrel on Vorontzoff that night so that he would be compelled to fight first thing the following morning.
At this point in his deliberations Roger had found himself badly stuck. To pick a quarrel with a man was easy enough, but while he was Georgina's guest he could not possibly openly insult the Russian. He might by so doing achieve his object, but at too high a price. Georgina would be so disgusted with his behaviour that it might make a permanent breach between them, and that he was not prepared to risk on any account. It had then occurred to him that this difficulty could be got over if he could so arrange matters that the Russian insulted him. Cheating at cards was by no means unusual, even in private houses, but if the person cheated was a man of spirit he would naturally denounce the cheat; upon which the cheat would either attempt to laugh it off and pay up or declare himself insulted and demand satisfaction. Roger knew that as he was not a habitual gambler, if he handled matters skilfully, no one except Vorontzoff would believe that he had cheated and it would be considered perfectly natural for him to call the Russian out.
In view of his intentions Roger was anxious that he should finish up a loser rather than a winner on the evening's game; but on the other hand he could ill-afford to lose any considerable sum, so during the first round of banks he confined himself to punting in five-shilling chips and on most occasions when he won leaving his money on so that when the cards turned against him at his second, third or fourth double he appeared to be losing quite a lot, although, in fact, he had only lost his original stake. Normally the steady drain of such a policy would have cost him five or six pounds, but it seemed that his luck was in as on two occasions his stake doubled up to the agreed limit of five times and he had to take it off, in each case his five shillings having become eight pounds; so when the bank came round to him he was thirteen pounds in hand.
As each player could limit his bets at will the only chance of any individual losing really heavily was when they took a bank, since they were then pitted against the whole table and had to accept the heaviest bets as well as smaller ones. In this case, five pounds being the limit, if such a bet was left on and doubled up five times, the banker might go down one hundred and sixty pounds against a single player. All the odds were that he would get a considerable part of it back from the others, but it was a risk that had to be faced and a heavy one for Roger. Normally, he would either have passed his bank or sold it, as he had a right to do. Mrs. Armistead had just sold hers to Fox for twenty pounds and Georgina had passed hers. Knowing Roger's financial circumstances she naturally expected him to do the same, so she was surprised and a little worried when she saw him making the cards with the obvious intention of taking it.