st me all the week
past, and I must raise money for the bank to-night. Do you understand
the cards?'

I replied that I could play as soldiers do, but had no great skill.

'We will practise in the morning, my boy,' said he, 'and I'll put you up
to a thing or two worth knowing.'

Of course I was glad to have such an opportunity of acquiring knowledge,
and professed myself delighted to receive my uncle's instruction.

The Chevalier's account of himself rather disagreeably affected me.
All his show was on his back, as he said. His carriage, with the fine
gilding, was a part of his stock in trade. He HAD a sort of mission from
the Austrian Court:--it was to discover whether a certain quantity of
alloyed ducats which had been traced to Berlin, were from the King's
treasury. But the real end of Monsieur de Balibari was play. There was
a young attache of the English embassy, my Lord Deuceace, afterwards
Viscount and Earl of Crabs in the English peerage, who was playing high;
and it was after hearing of the passion of this young English nobleman
that my uncle, then at Prague, determined to visit Berlin and engage
him. For there is a sort of chivalry among the knights of the dice-box:
the fame of great players is known all over Europe. I have known the
Chevalier de Casanova, for instance, to travel six hundred miles, from
Paris to Turin, for the purpose of meeting Mr. Charles Fox, then only my
Lord Holland's dashing son, afterwards the greatest of European orators
and statesmen.

It was agreed that I should keep my character of valet; that in the
presence of strangers I should not know a word of English; that I should
keep a good look-out on the trumps when I was serving the champagne and
punch about; and, having a remarkably fine eyesight and a great natural
aptitude, I was speedily able to give my dear uncle much assistance
against his opponents at the green table. Some prudish persons may
affect indignation at the frankness of these confessions, but Heaven
pity them! Do you suppose that any man who has lost or won a hundred
thousand pounds at play will not take the advantages which his neighbour
enjoys? They are all the same. But it is only the clumsy fool who
CHEATS; who resorts to the vulgar expedients of cogged dice and cut
cards. Such a man is sure to go wrong some time or other, and is not fit
to play in the society of gallant gentlemen; and my advice to people who
see such a vulgar person at his pranks is, of course