a loser, I hope?'--'Indeed I am not,' I replied; 'but not
much a gainer.'

"'Nor need you desire to be. Do you desire to give your adversary his
revenge now, or take another opportunity.'--'At another time,' I
replied.

"'You will find me here the day after to-morrow, when I shall be at your
service;' then bowing, he turned away.

"'He is a very rich man whom you have been playing with,' said the
chevalier.--"

"Indeed!"

"'Yes, and I have known him to lose for three days together; but you may
take his word for any amount; he is a perfect gentleman and man of
honour.'--''Tis well to play with such,' I replied; 'but I suppose you
are about to leave.'

"'Yes, it grows late, and I have some business to transact to-morrow, so
I must leave.'--'I will accompany you part of the way home,' said I,
'and then I shall have finished the night.'

"I did leave with him, and accompanied him home, and then walked to my
own home."

* * * * *

"This was my first visit, and I thought a propitious beginning, but it
was the more dangerous. Perhaps a loss might have effectually deterred
me, but it is doubtful to tell how certain events might have been
altered. It is just possible that I might have been urged on by my
desire to retrieve any loss I might have incurred, and so made myself at
once the miserable being it took months to accomplish in bringing me to.

"I went the day but one after this, to meet the same individual at the
gambling-table, and played some time with varied success, until I left
off with a trifling loss upon the night's play, which was nothing of any
consequence.

[Illustration]

"Thus matters went on; I sometimes won and sometimes lost, until I won a
few hundreds, and this determined me to play for higher stakes than any
I had yet played for.

"It was no use going on in the peddling style I had been going on; I had
won two hundred and fifty pounds in three months, and had I been less
fearful I might have had twenty-five thousand pounds. Ah! I'll try my
fortune at a higher game.

"Having once made this resolution, I was anxious to begin my new plan,
which I hoped would have the effect of placing me far above my then
present position in society, which was good, and with a little attention
it would have made me an independent man; but then it required patience,
and nothing more. However, the other method was so superior since it
might all be done with good luck in a few m