Read The Player on the Other Side for Free Online Page A

his unseemly mode of life might actually be an implicit breach of Uncle Nathaniel’s will that would disqualify him from his portion of the principal inheritance.’
    â€˜And what did Mr. Percival say to that?’ Archer murmured, although he was reasonably sure of what Mr. Percival had said to that.
    â€˜A great many unpleasant things expressed in the most unbridled language,’ said Robert York uncomfortably. ‘Also, he laughed in my face. I suppose he was right about the legal aspects, and I knew it — probably that’s why I was rather more emphatic in my refusal of his request than I should otherwise have been.’
    The admission apparently cost him something. He reached for a fresh tissue and patted his brow.
    â€˜Knowing Percival,’ Robert York went on, not without a brightening of tone, ‘I feel certain that I could, ah — readjust the resulting coldness between us even now by advancing him the money. But if I did that, you see, Archer, Percival would construe it as a weakness of character, and then I should never be free of his demands. And I am free now, Archer — I assure you of that. The, ah — terms in which I couched my refusal, much as they distressed me then and now, had at least one virtue: I’m quite sure he won’t ask again.’
    â€˜Frankly,’ Tom Archer said, ‘I think the end in this case heartily justifies the means. I know how you shrink from being unfair to anyone, but this wasn’t unfairness, Mr. York — you were actually doing Mr. Percival a favor to refuse him.’
    â€˜You think so, Archer? You really think so? I must say I’m very glad to hear you say it. Yes! Well, then …
    â€˜The mail, sir?’
    â€˜Of course! The mail.’
    And Robert York with as nearly a cheerful an expression as his Madame Tussaud face could perform, picked up the topmost envelope of the little heap of letters, accepted the letter opener that Tom Archer had for some moments been holding in readiness, slit the letter, returned the letter opener to Archer and withdrew from the envelope an oddly shaped card with the letter J stamped on it.

6
    Y’s Gambit Declined
    â€˜You’d think,’ snapped Emily York, ‘that he could do without his silly old nap just this once. ’
    Ann Drew said soothingly, ‘He’s a man of very regular habits.’
    â€˜I admire regularity and I certainly approve of his. But there are times.’ She uttered the phrase with the completeness of a sentence.
    Ann rose. ‘Excuse me a moment, Miss York. I’ll go up and get Miss Myra.’
    â€˜It isn’t as if I had unlimited time, like certain others around here,’ said Emily, glaring at her nickel-plated wrist-watch. ‘I’m due at the League Conference by half-past eight.’
    â€˜I’m sure this won’t take very long,’ Ann said from the door.
    â€˜Unwed mothers,’ added Emily, evidently assuming that the two words were pregnant enough with priority and haste to require no elaboration.
    Ann Drew turned away then, so whether she smiled or not Emily York was not to know.
    After a while the doorbell rang. Emily bounded to her feet, computing instantly that her cousin Myra and Ann Drew were still upstairs, thus presenting her with an opportunity to try to do what another might flabbily pass on as beyond accomplishment. She strode on her sensible heels to the front door and swished it open.
    â€˜Good evening , Percival.’ She had been right.
    Percival York bared his teeth and pushed past her into the sitting room. He slung his expensive homburg onto a commode, turning and collapsing in continuous motion until he came to rest on a love seat, at the two extremities of his spine. He rolled a yellowing eyeball across the opposite wall, or rather at the clutter that obscured it: the East Indian whatnot stand, all spools and mother-of-pearl inlay; the faded print of Gainsborough’s