had never obtained the least favour from her. He was lying near at hand,
overwhelmed with grief and seasickness, and watching and listening with
all his might for the amorous encounter he suspected us of engaging in. I
did not want to have any unpleasantness, so I contented myself with
gazing on them till the two roses awoke and opened their eyes.

When this delicious sight was over, I got up and found that we were only
opposite Final, and I proceeded to reprimand the master.

"The wind fell dead at Savona, sir;" and all the seamen chorused his
excuse.

"Then you should have rowed instead of idling."

"We were afraid of waking you. You shall be at Antibes by tomorrow."

After passing the time by eating a hearty meal, we took a fancy to go on
shore at St. Remo. Everybody was delighted. I took my two nymphs on land,
and after forbidding any of the others to disembark I conducted the
ladies to an inn, where I ordered coffee. A man accosted us, and invited
us to come and play biribi at his house.

"I thought the game was forbidden in Genoa," said I. I felt certain that
the players were the rascals whose bank I had broken at Genoa, so I
accepted the invitation. My niece had fifty Louis in her purse, and I
gave fifteen to Marcoline. We found a large assemblage, room was made for
us, and I recognized the knaves of Genoa. As soon as they saw me they
turned pale and trembled. I should say that the man with the bag was not
the poor devil who had served me so well without wanting to.

"I play harlequin," said I.

"There isn't one."

"What's the bank?"

"There it is. We play for small stakes here, and those two hundred louis
are quite sufficient. You can bet as low as you like, and the highest
stake is of a louis."

"That's all very well, but my louis is full weight."

"I think ours are, too."

"Are you sure?"

"No."

"Then I won't play," said I, to the keeper of the rooms.

"You are right; bring the scales."

The banker then said that when play was over he would give four crowns of
six livres for every louis that the company had won, and the matter was
settled. In a moment the board was covered with stakes.

We each punted a louis at a time, and I and my niece lost twenty Louis,
but Marcoline, who had never possessed two sequins in her life before,
won two hundred and forty Louis. She played on the figure of an abbe
which came out fifth twenty times. She was given a bag full of crown
pieces, and we returned