wealthy; and the sums which he had
as yet lost, although in themselves vast, could not, I supposed, very
seriously annoy, much less so violently affect him. That he was overcome
by the wine just swallowed, was the idea which most readily presented
itself; and, rather with a view to the preservation of my own character
in the eyes of my associates, than from any less interested motive, I
was about to insist, peremptorily, upon a discontinuance of the play,
when some expressions at my elbow from among the company, and an
ejaculation evincing utter despair on the part of Glendinning, gave me
to understand that I had effected his total ruin under circumstances
which, rendering him an object for the pity of all, should have
protected him from the ill offices even of a fiend.

What now might have been my conduct it is difficult to say. The pitiable
condition of my dupe had thrown an air of embarrassed gloom over all;
and, for some moments, a profound silence was maintained, during which I
could not help feeling my cheeks tingle with the many burning glances
of scorn or reproach cast upon me by the less abandoned of the party.
I will even own that an intolerable weight of anxiety was for a
brief instant lifted from my bosom by the sudden and extraordinary
interruption which ensued. The wide, heavy folding doors of the
apartment were all at once thrown open, to their full extent, with a
vigorous and rushing impetuosity that extinguished, as if by magic,
every candle in the room. Their light, in dying, enabled us just to
perceive that a stranger had entered, about my own height, and closely
muffled in a cloak. The darkness, however, was now total; and we could
only feel that he was standing in our midst. Before any one of us could
recover from the extreme astonishment into which this rudeness had
thrown all, we heard the voice of the intruder.

"Gentlemen," he said, in a low, distinct, and never-to-be-forgotten
whisper which thrilled to the very marrow of my bones, "Gentlemen, I
make no apology for this behaviour, because in thus behaving, I am
but fulfilling a duty. You are, beyond doubt, uninformed of the true
character of the person who has to-night won at ecarte a large sum
of money from Lord Glendinning. I will therefore put you upon an
expeditious and decisive plan of obtaining this very necessary
information. Please to examine, at your leisure, the inner linings of
the cuff of his left sleeve, and the several little pac