d much, even if his taste
lay that way, which it does not; for a literary _Chasseur d'Afrique_ is
such a whim as Nature never yet indulged herself in. So perhaps he
caught at the only resource that could have saved him from worse things;
under which, I presume, is to be included the temptation to take
laudanum in proportions by no means prescribed or sanctioned by the
Faculty.

Every day about noon his servant helped him into the card-room at the
club, and settled him at his own table, where, with the two hours
respite of dinner, he sat till midnight, ready to give battle to all
comers at all weapons, just as the Knights of Lyonnesse used to keep a
bridge or a pass while achieving their vows. It is needless to say that
the changes of good or bad luck affected him not at all. Few men of his
stamp indulge in the weakness of railing at Fortune, which is the
privilege and consolation of the _roturier_. Neither was he ever heard
to reproach a partner, or become bitter against an adversary. He seemed
to take a pleasure in disappointing those who were always expecting from
him some savage outbreak of temper: they judged from his appearance, and
had some grounds for their anticipations; for, winning or losing, that
strange look, half-weary, half-defiant, never was off his face. But,
with Armand de Chateaumesnil, the _grand seigneur_ had not been merged
in the soldier: the _brusquerie_ of the camp had not overlaid the manner
of the courtly school in which he and all his race had been trained; the
school of those who would stab their enemy to the heart with sarcasm or
innuendo, but scorned to stun him with blatant abuse--of those who would
never have dreamt of listening to a woman with covered head, though they
might be deaf as the nether millstone to her entreaties or her tears. It
was with the Revolution that the rapier went out, and the _savate_ came
in.

Very few men came up to his standard of play; for he was hard to please
in style as well as in stakes. Keene did fully; and this, with a certain
similarity of tastes, accounted for his liking the latter so well. He
had little regard to throw away, and was chary of it in proportion. On
the other hand, Royston treated the invalid with an amount of deference
very unusual with him, in whom the bump of Veneration was probably
represented by a cavity.

The two were still talking on the terrace, when a man passed them, who
lifted his hat slightly, and then sighed audibly, looking