all speaking together, and in accents that evidently
betokened their having drunk somewhat freely.

"I tell you, again and again, the diamond wins it But here we are,"
cried Bubbleton; "and now for a pack of cards, and let 's decide the
thing at once."

"You said you 'd bet fifty, I think?" drawled out Crofts, who was
unquestionably the most sober of the party. "But what have we here?" At
this instant his eye fell upon Darby, who had quietly ensconced himself
behind the door, and hoped to escape unseen. "Eh, what's this, I say?"

"What!" cried Bubbleton; "what do I see? A nymph with bright and
flowing hair; a hag like Hecuba, by Jove! Tom Burke, my man, how comes
the damsel here?"

"'Tis Kitty, ould Kitty Cole, your honor--The young gentleman was
buying a ballad from me, the Heavens prosper him!" said Darby.

"Nothing treasonous, I hope; no disloyal effusion, Tom; no scandal about
Queen Elizabeth, my boy,--eh?"

"Come, old lady," said Cradock, "let's have the latest novelty of the
Liberty."

"Yes," said Bubbleton; "strike the harp in praise of--Confound the
word!"

"Hang the old crone!" broke in Hilliard. "Here are the cards. The game
stands thus: a spade is led,--you 've got none; hearts are trumps."

"No, you mistake; the diamond's the trump," said Cradock.

"I cry halt," said Crofts, holding up both his hands; "the first thing
is, what's the bet?"

"Anything you like," cried Bubbleton; "fifty,--a hundred,--five
hundred."

"Be it then five hundred. I take you," said Crofts, coolly, taking a
memorandum book from his pocket.

"No, no," interposed Hilliard; "Bubbleton, you sha'n't do any such
thing. Five,--ten,--twenty, if you wish; but I 'll not stand by at such
a wager."

"Well, then, if twenty be as much as you have got permission to bet,"
replied Crofts, insolently, "there's my stake." So saying, he threw
a note on the table, and looked over at Bubbleton, as if awaiting his
doing the same.

I saw my poor friend's embarrassment, and without stirring from my
place, slipped a note into his hand in silence. A squeeze of his fingers
replied to me, and the same instant he threw the crumpled piece of paper
down, and cried out, "Now for it; decide the point."

Crofts at once drew his chair to the table, and began with the utmost
coolness to arrange the cards; while the others, deeply interested in
the point at issue, looked on without speaking. I thought this a
good opportunity for Darby to effect his