one with him; scarcely had I
uttered these words than he gave a third sigh, and looked so very much
like a saint that I was afraid he was going to excommunicate me. Nothing
of the kind, however, for presently he gets up and locks the door, then
sitting down at the table, he motioned me to do the same, which I did,
and in five minutes there we were playing at cards, his reverence and
myself.

"I soon found that his reverence knew quite as much about card-playing as
I did. Divil a trick was there connected with cards that his reverence
did not seem awake to. As, however, we were not playing for money, this
circumstance did not give me much uneasiness; so we played game after
game for two hours, when his reverence, having business, told me I might
go, so I took up my cards, made my obedience, and left him. The next day
I had other games with him, and so on for a very long time, still playing
for nothing. At last his reverence grew tired of playing for nothing,
and proposed that we should play for money. Now, I had no desire to play
with his reverence for money, as I knew that doing so would bring on a
quarrel. As long as we were playing for nothing, I could afford to let
his reverence use what tricks he pleased; but if we played for money, I
couldn't do so. If he played his tricks, I must play mine, and use every
advantage to save my money; and there was one I possessed which his
reverence did not. The cards being my own, I had put some delicate
little marks on the trump cards, just at the edges, so that when I dealt,
by means of a little sleight of hand I could deal myself any trump card I
pleased. But I wished, as I said before, to have no dealings for money
with his reverence, knowing that he was master in the house, and that he
could lead me a dog of a life if I offended him, either by winning his
money, or not letting him win mine. So I told him I had no money to play
with, but the ould thief knew better; he knew that I was every day
winning money from the scholars, and the sub-rector, and the other people
of the house, and the ould thief had determined to let me go on in that
way winning money, and then by means of his tricks, which he thought I
dare not resent, to win from me all my earnings--in a word, Shorsha, to
let me fill myself like a sponge, and then squeeze me for his own
advantage. So he made me play with him, and in less than three days came
on the quarrel; his reverence chated me, and I chated