James Pethel | Page 5

had arrived in Dieppe this
afternoon, was here for a day or two. We were introduced. He spoke to
me with empressement, saying he was a "very great admirer" of my
work. I no longer disliked him. Grierson, armed with counters, had now
darted away to secure a place that had just been vacated. Pethel, with a
wave of his hand toward the tables, said:
"I suppose you never condescend to this sort of thing."

"Well--" I smiled indulgently.
"Awful waste of time," he admitted.
I glanced down at the splendid mess of counters and gold and notes that
were now becoming, under the swift fingers of the little man at the
bureau, an orderly array. I did not say aloud that it pleased me to be,
and to be seen, talking on terms of equality to a man who had won so
much. I did not say how wonderful it seemed to me that he, whom I
had watched just now with awe and with aversion, had all the while
been a great admirer of my work. I did but say, again indulgently, that I
supposed baccarat to be as good a way of wasting time as another.
"Ah, but you despise us all the same." He added that he always envied
men who had resources within themselves. I laughed lightly, to imply
that it WAS very pleasant to have such resources, but that I didn't want
to boast. And, indeed, I had never felt humbler, flimsier, than when the
little man at the bureau, naming a fabulous sum, asked its owner
whether he would take the main part in notes of mille francs, cinq-mille,
dix-mille--quoi? Had it been mine, I should have asked to have it all in
five-franc pieces. Pethel took it in the most compendious form, and
crumpled it into his pocket. I asked if he were going to play any more
to-night.
"Oh, later on," he said. "I want to get a little sea air into my lungs now."
He asked, with a sort of breezy diffidence, if I would go with him. I
was glad to do so. It flashed across my mind that yonder on the terrace
he might suddenly blurt out: "I say, look here, don't think me awfully
impertinent, but this money's no earthly use to me. I do wish you'd
accept it as a very small return for all the pleasure your work has given
me, and-- There, PLEASE! Not another word!"--all with such candor,
delicacy, and genuine zeal that I should be unable to refuse. But I must
not raise false hopes in my reader. Nothing of the sort happened.
Nothing of that sort ever does happen.
We were not long on the terrace. It was not a night on which you could
stroll and talk; there was a wind against which you had to stagger,
holding your hat on tightly, and shouting such remarks as might occur
to you. Against that wind acquaintance could make no headway. Yet I
see now that despite that wind, or, rather, because of it, I ought already
to have known Pethel a little better than I did when we presently sat
down together inside the cafe of the casino. There had been a point in

our walk, or our stagger, when we paused to lean over the parapet,
looking down at the black and driven sea. And Pethel had shouted that
it would be great fun to be out in a sailing-boat to-night, and that at one
time he had been very fond of sailing.
As we took our seats in the cafe, he looked about him with boyish
interest and pleasure; then squaring his arms on the little table, he asked
me what I would drink. I protested that I was the host, a position which
he, with the quick courtesy of the very rich, yielded to me at once. I
feared he would ask for champagne, and was gladdened by his demand
for water.
"Apollinaris, St. Galmier, or what?" I asked. He preferred plain water. I
ventured to warn him that such water was never "safe" in these places.
He said he had often heard that, but would risk it. I remonstrated, but
he was firm. "Alors," I told the waiter, "pour Monsieur un verre de l'eau
fraiche, et pour moi un demi blonde."
Pethel asked me to tell him who every one was. I told him no one was
any one in particular, and suggested that we should talk about
ourselves.
"You mean," he laughed, "that you want to know who the devil I am?"
I assured him that I had often heard of him. At this he was unaffectedly
pleased.
"But," I added, "it's always more interesting to hear a man talked about
by himself." And indeed, since he had