g child. Go to sleep!
Dream of happy days!--of a better life which is coming speedily. That
will bring me luck.'

"He kissed her, and ran off, not to be stopped.

"In two deals he had lost everything--all that he possessed. He
remained standing motionless near the Colonel, staring, in a dazed
manner, at the gaming table.

"'Won't you go on, Chevalier?' asked the Colonel, shuffling the cards
for the next deal.

"'I have lost my all,' the Chevalier answered, powerfully constraining
himself to be calm.

"'Do you mean to say you have nothing left?' the Colonel asked at the
next deal.

"'I am a beggar,' the Chevalier cried, in a voice quivering with fury
and pain, as he continued to stare at the gaming table. He did not
notice that those who were staking were getting more and more the
better of the banquier.

"The Colonel calmly continued the game.

"As he shuffled the cards for the third deal, he said to the Chevalier
(without looking on him), 'You have a beautiful wife, you know!'

"'What do you mean?' cried the Chevalier angrily. The Colonel turned
away a little without answering him.

"'Ten thousand ducats--or Angela!' he said, half averting his face, as
the cards were being cut.

"'You are out of your senses!' cried the Chevalier, who had, however,
now regained his composure a good deal, and began to observe that the
Colonel was losing at every deal.

"'Twenty thousand ducats, or Angela!' the Colonel said almost in a
whisper, as he paused for a moment during the shuffling of the cards.
The Chevalier said not a word. The Colonel played again, and nearly all
the cards were in favour of the players--against him.

"'Done!' the Chevalier whispered in the Colonel's ear when the next
deal began; and he threw the Queen on the table.

"The Queen lost.

"The Chevalier drew back, grinding his teeth, and leaned at the window
with despair and death in his white face.

"The game ended, and, with a jeering 'Well! what next?' the Colonel
came up to the Chevalier.

"'Oh, God!' cried the Chevalier, quite beside himself. 'You have made
me a beggar, but you must be a madman if you think you have won my
wife! Are we in the West Indies? Is my wife a slave--a chattel in her
husband's power, so that he can sell her, or gamble her away at faro?
It is true, of course, that you would have had to pay me twenty
thousand ducats if the Queen had won, so that I have lost the right to
make any objection if my wife chooses to lea