e knows what she's about; but he, poor fool, deludes
himself with the notion that she'll make him a good wife, and because she
has amused him with some rodomontade about despising rank and wealth in
matters of love and marriage, he flatters himself that she's devotedly
attached to him; that she will not refuse him for his poverty, and does
not court him for his rank, but loves him for himself alone.'

'But is not he courting her for her fortune?'

'No, not he. That was the first attraction, certainly; but now he has
quite lost sight of it: it never enters his calculations, except merely
as an essential without which, for the lady's own sake, he could not
think of marrying her. No; he's fairly in love. He thought he never
could be again, but he's in for it once more. He was to have been
married before, some two or three years ago; but he lost his bride by
losing his fortune. He got into a bad way among us in London: he had an
unfortunate taste for gambling; and surely the fellow was born under an
unlucky star, for he always lost thrice where he gained once. That's a
mode of self-torment I never was much addicted to. When I spend my money
I like to enjoy the full value of it: I see no fun in wasting it on
thieves and blacklegs; and as for gaining money, hitherto I have always
had sufficient; it's time enough to be clutching for more, I think, when
you begin to see the end of what you have. But I have sometimes
frequented the gaming-houses just to watch the on-goings of those mad
votaries of chance--a very interesting study, I assure you, Helen, and
sometimes very diverting: I've had many a laugh at the boobies and
bedlamites. Lowborough was quite infatuated--not willingly, but of
necessity,--he was always resolving to give it up, and always breaking
his resolutions. Every venture was the 'just once more:' if he gained a
little, he hoped to gain a little more next time, and if he lost, it
would not do to leave off at that juncture; he must go on till he had
retrieved that last misfortune, at least: bad luck could not last for
ever; and every lucky hit was looked upon as the dawn of better times,
till experience proved the contrary. At length he grew desperate, and we
were daily on the look-out for a case of _felo-de-se_--no great matter,
some of us whispered, as his existence had ceased to be an acquisition to
our club. At last, however, he came to a check. He made a large stake,
which he determined should be