Page:By order of the Czar.djvu/208



196 BY ORDER OF THE CZAR.

there was much play at any time in Selwyn's rooms, but his friends liked a hand at whist or poker, and he believed in making them comfortable. He had keys for every- thing his cigar cabinet, his cards, his counters, his spirits; he was business-like not that he did not trust Devereux, who kept in a special cupboard a reserve of spirits, wines and cigars, but Sam liked his bunch of keys ; they were, with their bright chain, a form of personal decoration : the chain represented a sort of male chatelain when he thrust his hands into his pockets on dress occa- sions, and he rattled it and his keys with something of a housekeeper's pride.

There were a few cards stuck in his over-mantel private views of pictures, two or three At Homes, invita- tions to smoking concerts ; and prominent among the society cards, as Sam called them, was Lady Forsyth's Every Wednesday Afternoon in May and June.

" Quite ready, sir," said Devereux, in his ecclesiastical manner.

"Thank you," said Sam, retiring to his bedroom, the very model of a sleeping apartment, with a spacious bath- room beyond.

What could a fellow like Sam Selwyn want with a wife while he possessed all these luxuries and privileges such a servant as Devereux, who had never been known to be in drink or out of temper, and with an improving business, a growing balance at his banker's, and financial prospects generally of the rosiest.

These questions in a vague way presented themselves to Sam as he began to dress for Lady Forsyth's At Home ; they occurred to him probably because the prospect of his having a wife now seemed further off than ever ; as his means had increased just, indeed, as he could afford with a clear conscience to have said to Dolly Norcott, "Be mine" she had drifted further away, nay, right