ked his
friend to explain the mystery of the fact that, without possessing any
fortune, he could gratify all his tastes and fancies, whilst he himself,
with certain resources, was compelled to submit to privations, still
getting into debt.

Chauvignac--such was the name of the friend thus addressed--was a
card-sharper, and he instantly seized the opportunity to make something
out of the happy disposition of this modern prodigal son, this scion of
gentility. With the utmost frankness he explained to the young man his
wonderful method of keeping his pockets full of money, and showed that
nothing could be easier than for Olivier to go and do likewise in his
terrible condition;--in short, on one hand there were within his grasp,
riches, pleasure, all manner of enjoyment; on the other, pitiless
creditors, ruin, misery, and contempt. The tempter, moreover, offered to
initiate his listener in his infallible method of getting rich. In
his frame of mind Olivier yielded to the temptation, with the full
determination, if not to get money by cheating at cards, at any rate to
learn the method which might serve as a means of self-defence should
he not think proper to use it for attack--such was the final argument
suggested by the human Mephistopheles to his pupil.

Taking Olivier to his house, he showed him a pack of cards. 'Now here is
a pack of cards,' he said; 'there seems to be nothing remarkable about
it, does there?' Olivier examined the pack and declared that the cards
did not appear to differ in the least from all others. 'Well,' said
Chauvignac, 'nevertheless they have been subjected to a preparation
called biseautage, or having one end of the cards made narrower than the
other. This disposition enables us to remove from the pack such and such
cards and then to class them in the necessary order so that they may get
into the hand of the operator.' Chauvignac then proceeded to apply his
precepts by an example, and although the young man had no particular
qualification for the art of legerdemain, he succeeded at once to
admiration in a game at Ecarte, for he had already mastered the
first process of cheating. Having thus, as he thought, sufficiently
compromised his victim, Chauvignac left him to his temptations, and took
leave of him.

Two days afterwards the professor returned to his pupil and invited him
to accompany him on a pleasure trip. Olivier excused himself on account
of his desperate condition--one of his creditors