ld Colonel, it was doubly so now. He drew out his cards by chance, by
accident, and staked on them, whatever they happened to be. And the
unseen hand of that higher Power, which is in league with that which we
term 'Chance'--nay, which _is_ that Chance--directed his play. When the
game was done he had won 1000 louis d'or.

"Next morning he felt in a sort of stupor on awaking. The money was
lying on the table by his bed, just as he had shaken it out of his
pockets. At first he thought he was dreaming. He rubbed his eyes and
drew the table nearer to him. But as he gradually recollected what had
happened--when he sunk his hands well into the heap of gold money, and
counted the coins delightedly over and over again--suddenly there awoke
in him, and passed through his being like a poisoned breath, the love
of the vile mammon. The pureness of mind which had so long been his was
gone.

"He could scarcely wait till evening came to get back to the
play-table. His luck continued to attend him, so that in a few weeks,
during which he played every night, he had won a very large sum.

"There are two sorts of gamblers. To many the game in itself presents
an indescribable, mysterious joy, quite without any reference to
winning. The wonderful enchainments of the chances alternate in the
most marvellous variety; the influence of the Powers which govern the
issue displays itself, so that, inspired by this, our spirits stretch
their wings in an attempt to reach that darksome realm, that mysterious
laboratory, where the Power in question works, and there see it
working. I knew a man once who used to sit alone in his room for days
and nights keeping banque, and staking against himself. That man, I
consider, was a proper player. Others have only the gain in view, and
look upon the game as a means of winning money quickly. The Chevalier
belonged to the latter class, thereby proving the theory that the true
passion for play must exist in a person's nature, and be born with him.

"For this reason the circle within which the mere ponteur is restricted
soon became too narrow for him. With the very large sum he had now won
he started a banque of his own; and here, too, fortune favoured him, so
that in a very short time his was the richest banque in Paris. As lies
in the nature of things, to him, as the luckiest, richest banquier,
resorted the greatest number of players.

"The wild rugged life of a gambler soon blotted out in him all those
men