ready acceptance of my proposition, his gentleman-like
ease and calm, his actual indifference as I lost, and lost heavily, soon
staggered all my reasonings, and routed all my theory. And when at last
the Prince, complimenting me on my skill, deplored the ill-luck that
more than balanced it, O'Kelly said, gayly,--

"Depend on 't, you'll have better fortune after supper. Come and have a
glass of champagne."

I was now impatient until we were again at the card-table.

All my former intentions were reversed, and I would have given my right
hand to have been able to repay my debt to him ere I said "Good night."
Perhaps he read what was passing within me; I almost suspect that
he construed aright the restless anxiety that now beset me; for he
whispered, as we went back to the drawing-room,--

"You are evidently out of luck. Wait for your revenge on another
evening."

"Now or never," said I. And so was it in reality. I had secretly
determined within myself to try and win back O'Kelly's losses, and if
I failed, at once to stand forward and declare myself in my real
character. No false shame, no real dread of the ignominy to which I
should expose myself should prevent me; and with an oath to my own heart
I ratified this compact.

Again we took our places; the stakes were now doubled; and all the
excitement of mind was added to the gambler's infatuation. Colonel
Canthorpe, who had been for some minutes occupied with his note-book,
at last tore out the leaf he had been writing on, and handed it to me,
saying,--

"Is that correct?"

The figures were six hundred and fifty,--the amount of my loss.

I simply nodded an assent, and said,--

"We go on, I suppose?"

"We 'll double, if you prefer it," said he.

"What says my banker?" said I.

"He says, 'Credit unlimited,'" cried O'Kelly, gayly.

"Egad! I wish mine would say as much," said the Prince, laughing, as he
cut the cards for me to deal.

Although I had drunk freely, and talked excitingly, my head became
suddenly calm and collected, just as if some great emergency had
sufficed to dispel all illusions, and enabled my faculties to assume
their full exercise. Of O'Kelly I saw nothing more; he was occupied in
an adjoining room; and even this element of anxiety was spared me.

I will not ask my reader to follow me through the vicissitudes of play,
nor expect from him any share of interest in a passion which of all
others is the most bereft of good, and allied with t