ly life I should lead, while he--oh, Charlie, my love, my
love!"

She paused a moment, while she seemed trying to repress some powerful
emotion, and then resumed her story:

"When he was twenty-one, and I was twenty, we went abroad in company
with some relatives of mine, and found ourselves at last at Monte Carlo.
Your grandfather was with us, and together we went into the gambling
hall where men and women sell their souls for money, and there my
brother played, and I--shame that I must tell it--I, too, tried my luck,
while Charlie looked on reproachfully, and tried to get me away, but I
only laughed at him, and bade him stay to keep me company. Then I called
him a coward, and badgered him until one night he put down a five-franc
piece and won, and then he put down another, and another--doubling and
trebling sometimes, and always winning, as it is said Satan, who rules
that den, lets the novices do. The next day Charlie played with a
recklessness which half alarmed me, and made me remonstrate with him.
But to no purpose.

"'You called me a coward,' he said, laughingly; 'and besides that, I
rather like it, the gold comes so easily. I have scarcely lost a pound.'

"Soon, however, the tide turned, and he began to lose; not small, but
large sums. But, as if that made him more determined than ever, he
played on and on, always the first to enter and the last to leave, while
I watched him with a dread foreboding at my heart which I could not
define. Oh, how rashly he played and what heavy sums he staked! His
fortune was not large, nor was mine then what it is now; but we had
planned together to buy a lovely place we knew of on the Isle of Wight,
and had furnished it in fancy many times.

"'I am bound to get back what I have lost, or we cannot have Rose Lawn,'
he would say, with a smile; and once, when I begged him to desist, and
told him I did not care for Rose Lawn he answered me:

"'But I do, and you must not complain. You made me play, you know.'

"After that I was silent and watched him sadly, as the infatuation
increased. At last he said to me one night:

"'Betty,' that was the name he gave me, 'this evening will see the end.
Something tells me I shall get back all I have lost, and I am resolved
to stake everything I have. But whether I lose or win, it is my last
chance. Don't look so reproachfully at me. Remember, you taught me to
play, but you did not know how strong was the desire in me to do it. A
love for th