He dressed, slowly and carefully, with several pauses, in a plain light-brown suit and a white shirt, tied with a dark-brown necktie. While he was lacing up his shoes, he rested for a while and took a couple of breaths. He could recall the faro game quite clearly, and he certainly remembered firing through the dealer’s hat. But he wasn’t at all sure what had happened after that. They had drunk a few more whiskeys with the dealer to celebrate, and then he had been introduced to some of the Eagle’s regulars, and there had been drinks all around again, and at six o’clock, with the sky already light, Charles and Andrew had brought him back to Knickerbocker Jane’s in the phaeton, with Billy grumbling and complaining all the way that all these late nights would give him dark rings under his eyes. It had been too late for any romps with Ursula, even if he had been able to raise the energy. Knickerbocker Jane had packed her off to bed just after midnight, with a grocer’s assistant called Phelps. Guests were guests, but business was business.

Collis cleaned his teeth, then went downstairs to find himself some breakfast. On the landing, just coming out of her room, he met a small blonde girl in a décolleté day gown of white figured cotton, in which her breasts nestled like two soft-set puddings. She was blue-eyed, and snub-nosed, and couldn’t have been much older than fifteen. Two diamond pendants hung from her earlobes, and in her cleavage was a gold-and-sapphire cluster which was certainly just as expensive as any piece of jewellery that Collis had seen on any woman at a New York society dance.

‘Good morning,’ he said.

The girl gave him a little curtsy. ‘Good morning. I see you’ve recovered. Well, almost.’

‘Recovered? Recovered from what?’

‘Oh,’ she said, pursing her lips. ‘You must have been worse than I thought.’

‘Worse than you thought? Why should you have thought I was bad at all?’

‘Why,’ she said, ‘you had to be carried to bed this morning. A girl at each corner. And Knickerbocker Jane had to undress you and tuck you up. We all watched, of course.’

Collis looked at her warily. ‘Are you pulling my leg?’ he asked her. ‘I’m sure I distinctly remember going up those stairs on my own, unaided.’

‘You made it half-way,’ she told him. ‘But then you fell flat on your back and you lay there singing. You wouldn’t open your eyes, and you wouldn’t move, so there wasn’t anything else for it.’

Collis cleared his throat and tried to stand straight in a dignified manner. ‘I see,’ he said. ‘Well, er, how many were there?’

‘How many what? I don’t understand you.’

‘How many were there, in the room? You know, watching.’

The girl closed her eyes and began to count on her fingers, whispering the numbers as she counted. Collis interrupted her by taking her hand in his and giving it a gentle squeeze. ‘Never mind,’ he said hoarsely. ‘If there were that many, I’d rather not know.’