are too tame and too tedious for the impatience of a gambler.

I have no intention of winding up these few remarks by any moral episode
of a gambler's life, though my memory could supply me with more than one
such--when the baneful passion became the ruin, not of a thoughtless,
giddy youth, inexperienced and untried, but of one who had already won
golden opinions from the world, and stood high in the ranks which lead
to honour and distinction. These stories have, unhappily, a sameness
which mars the force of their lesson; they are listened to like the
refrain of an old song, and from their frequency are disregarded. No;
I trust in the fact that education and the tastes that flow from it
are the best safeguards against a contagion of a heartless, soulless
passion, and would rather warn my young countrymen at this place against
the individuals than the system.

'Am I in your way, sir?' said a short, somewhat overdressed man, with
red whiskers, as he made room for me to approach the play-table, with a
politeness quite remarkable--'am I in your way, sir?'

'Not in the least; I beg you 'll not stir.'

'Pray take my seat; I request you will.'

'By no means, sir; I never play. I was merely looking on.'

'Nor I either--or at least very rarely,' said he, rising with the air of
a man who felt no pleasure in what was going forward. 'You don't happen
to know that young gentleman in the light-blue frock and white vest
yonder?'

'No, I never saw him before.'

'I 'm sorry for it,' said he in a whisper; 'he has just lost seventy
thousand francs, and is going the readiest way to treble the sum by his
play. I 'm certain he is English by his look and appearance, and it is
a cruel thing, a very cruel thing, not to give him a word of caution
here.'

The words, spoken with a tone of feeling, interested me much in the
speaker, and already I was angry with myself for having conceived a
dislike to his appearance and a prejudice against his style of dress.

'I see,' continued he, after a few seconds' pause--'I see you agree with
me. Let us try if we can't find some one who may know him. If Wycherley
is here--you know Sir Harry, I suppose?'

'I have not that honour.'

'Capital fellow--the best in the world. He's in the Blues, and always
about Windsor or St. James's. He knows everybody; and if that young
fellow be anybody, he's sure to know him. Ah, how d'ye do, my lord?'
continued he, with an easy nod, as Lord Colebrook passed.