right there, my little chap," said Peter,
laughing heartily, and at once recovering all his wonted good-humor at
the sound of his own mellow-toned mirth; and in this pleasant mood
he gave an arm to each of his fair companions, and led them into the
supper-room. There was an ostentatious desire for display in the order
Dalton gave that evening to the waiter. It seemed as if he wished to
appear perfectly indifferent about his losses. The table was covered
with a costly profusion that attracted general notice. Wines of the
rarest and most precious vintages stood on the sideboard. Dalton did the
honors with even more than his accustomed gayety. There was a stimulant
in that place at the head of the table; there was some magical influence
in the duty of host that never failed with him. The sense of sway and
power that ambitious minds feel in high and pre-eminent stations were
all his, as he sat at the top of his board; and it must be owned that
with many faults of manner, and many shortcomings on the score of taste,
yet Peter did the honors of his table well and gracefully.

Certain is it Mrs. Ricketts and her friends thought so. Zoe was in
perfect ecstasies at the readiness of his repartees and the endless
variety of his anecdotes. He reminded her at once of Sheridan and "poor
dear Mirabeau," and various other "beaux esprits" she used to live with.
Martha listened to him with sincere pleasure. Purvis grew very tipsy
in the process of his admiration, and the old General, suddenly brought
back to life and memory under the influence of champagne, thought him so
like Jack Trevor, of the Engineers, that he blubbered out, "I think I 'm
listening to Jack. It's poor Trevor over again."

Was it any wonder if in such intoxications Peter forgot all his late
reverses, nor ever remembered them till he had wished his company
good-night, and found himself alone in his own chamber? Pecuniary
difficulties were no new thing to Dalton, and it would not have
interfered with his pleasant dreams that night had the question been one
of those ordinary demands which he well knew how to resist or evade by
many a legal sleight and many an illegal artifice; but here was a debt
of honor. He had given his name, three or four times during the evening,
for large sums, lost on the very instant they were borrowed. These must
be repaid on the next day; but how, he knew not. How he "stood" in Abel
Kraus's books he had not the remotest idea. It might be with a