"And then, when I was still in the City Hall I had a row with Luigi.
He spoke of my mother to a group of officials I was taking through
Minetta Lane.
"Diana, it was Luigi who taught me to gamble when I was not over eight
years old. I took to it with devilish skill. What drink or dope or
women have been to other men, gambling has been to me. After I came
back from the Grand Canyon with John Seaton, I began to fight against
it. But, although I waited on table for my board, I really put myself
through the High School on my earnings at craps and draw poker. As I
grew older I ceased to gamble as a means of subsistence but whenever I
was overtaxed mentally I was drawn irresistibly to a gambling den. And
so after the fight with Luigi--"
Enoch paused, his face knotted. His strong hands, clasping his knees
as he sat in the sand, opposite Diana, were tense and hard. Diana,
looking at him thought of what this man meant to the nation, of what
his service had been and would be: she thought of the great gifts with
which nature had endowed him and she could not bear to have him humble
himself to her.
She sprang to her feet. "Enoch! Enoch!" she cried. "Don't tell me
any more! You are entitled to your personal weaknesses.
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