subject, and they
are delighted to confess to a third party; and these confessions with a
seasoning of tears gives them in their own eyes quite a halo of
saintliness."

"Well, let her tell you if she likes. We shall see what comes of it."

"Possibly she may demand satisfaction; in which case I shall be glad to
do my best for her."

"You make me laugh! I can't imagine what sort of satisfaction she could
claim, unless she wants to punish me by the 'Lex talionis', which would
be hardly practicable without a repetition of the original offence. If
she had not liked the game, all she had to do was to give me a push which
would have sent me backwards."

"Yes, but that would have let us know what you had been trying to do."

"Well, if it comes to that, the slightest movement would have rendered
the whole process null and void; but as it was she stood in the proper
position as quiet as a lamb; nothing could be easier."

"It's an amusing business altogether. But did you notice that the
Lambertini was angry with you, too? She, perhaps, saw what you were
doing, and felt hurt."

"Oh! she has got another cause of complaint against me. We have fallen
out, and I am leaving her this evening."

"Really?"

"Yes, I will tell you all about it. Yesterday evening, a young fellow in
the Inland Revenue who had been seduced to sup with us by a hussy of
Genoa, after losing forty louis, threw, the cards in the face of my
landlady and called her a thief. On the impulse of the moment I took a
candle and put it out on his face. I might have destroyed one of his
eyes, but I fortunately hit him on the cheek. He immediately ran for his
sword, mine was ready, and if the Genoese had not thrown herself between
us murder might have been committed. When the poor wretch saw his cheek
in the glass, he became so furious that nothing short of the return of
all his money would appease him. They gave it him back, in spite of my
advice, for in doing so they admitted, tacitly at all events, that it had
been won by cheating. This caused a sharp dispute between the Lambertini
and myself after he had gone. She said we should have kept the forty
louis, and nothing would have happened except for my interference, that
it was her and not me whom the young man had insulted. The Genoese added
that if we had kept cool we should have had the plucking of him, but that
God alone knew what he would do now with the mark of the burn on his
face. Tired of the talk of the