“I lost quite a lot the first evening,” said Beryl, “and as I couldn’t possibly pay my losses I simply punted the next evening to try and get them back; I’ve come to the conclusion that baccarat is not my game. I came a bigger cropper on the second evening than on the first.”

“Beryl, this is awful! I’m very angry with you. Tell me quickly, how much have you lost?”

Beryl looked at a slip of paper that she was twisting and untwisting in her hands.

“Three hundred and ten the first night, seven hundred and sixteen the second,” she announced.

“Three hundred what?”

“Pounds.”

“ Pounds! ” screamed the mother; “Beryl, I don’t believe you. Why, that is a thousand pounds!”