silent all the time his daughter was present. As she was leaving the
room Johnny tried to rouse him. "We might have a game," he suggested,
looking towards a pack of cards that stuck out of a half-opened
drawer.

"I have nothing in the world that I can call my own," Captain
Polkington answered, without moving.

Mr. Gillat felt in his own lean pockets surreptitiously. "We might
play for paper," he said.

And as she went up-stairs Julia listened to hear their chairs scroop
on the kamptulikon floor as they drew them to the table; she was
surprised not to hear the sound, but she imagined the game must have
been put off a little so that her father could talk over his troubles.
Which, indeed, was the case, though the magnitude of those troubles
she did not guess.




CHAPTER II

THE DEBT


Violet's engagement was an accepted fact. Mr. Frazer came to see the
Captain, who received him in the dining-room--the combined ingenuity
of the family could not make the down-stairs room presentable. The
interview was short, but satisfactory; so also was the one with Mrs.