It was another long moment before Watson found the breath to answer. He was wonderfully exhausted, perfectly so, and answering seemed a good deal less urgent than simply continuing the moment.

"Typically," he said at last, "yes. When it's horses or dice or cards, certainly. But sometimes there's more benefit in losing. Now, for example." This was almost an immpossibly long speech, in his current state, and it was more than a little slurred. He rubbed his thumb gently against the nape of Holmes's neck.