Abp. 'How has the chance stood since we met before?'
Str. 'Sometimes for me--sometimes against me. I have lost and
won.'
Abp. 'Are you at play now?'
Str. 'Yes, sir. We have played several games to-day.'
Abp. 'Who wins?'
Str. 'The advantage is on my side. The game is just over. I
have a fine stroke--check-mate--there it is.'
Abp. 'How much have you won?'
Str. 'Five hundred guineas.'
Abp. 'That is a large sum. How are you to be paid?'
Str. 'God always sends some good rich man when I win, and YOU
are the person. He is remarkably punctual on these occasions.'

The archbishop had received a considerable sum on that day, as the
stranger knew; and so, producing a pistol by way of receipt, he
compelled the delivery of it. His Grace now discovered that he had
been the dupe of a thief; and though he had greatly bruited his first
adventure, he prudently kept his own counsel in regard to the last.

Such is the tale. Se non e vero e ben trovato.

SKITTLE SHARPERS.

'I know a respectable tradesman,' says a writer in Cassell's
Magazine--'I know him now, for he lives in the house he occupied at the
time of my tale--who was sent for to see a French gentleman at a tavern,
on business connected with the removal of this gentleman's property from
one of the London docks. The business, as explained by the messenger,
promising to be profitable, he of course promptly obeyed the summons,
and during his walk found that his conductor had once been in service
in France. This delighted Mr Chase--the name by which I signify the
tradesman--for he, too, had once so lived in France; and by the time he
reached the tavern he had talked himself into a very good opinion of
his new patron. The French gentleman was very urbane, gave Mr Chase his
instructions, let him understand expense was not to be studied, and, as
he was at lunch, would not be satisfied unless the tradesman sat down
with him. This was a great honour for the latter, as he found his
employer was a baron. Well, the foreigner was disposed to praise
everything English; he was glad he had come to live in London--Paris was
nothing to it; they had nothing in France like the English beer, with
which, in the exuberance of his hospitality, he filled and refilled Mr
Chase's glass; but that which delighted him above all that he had seen
"vos de leetle game vid de ball--vot you call--de--de--aha! de skittel."
Mr Chase assented