eck, which was pretty freely displayed as his shirt
collar was only confined by a loose red neckerchief. He wore his hat,
which was of a brownish-white, and had beside him a thick knotted
stick. The other man, whom his companion had called Isaac, was of a
more slender figure--stooping, and high in the shoulders--with a very
ill-favoured face, and a most sinister and villainous squint.

'Now old gentleman,' said Isaac, looking round. 'Do you know either of
us? This side of the screen is private, sir.'

'No offence, I hope,' returned the old man.

'But by G--, sir, there is offence,' said the other, interrupting him,
'when you intrude yourself upon a couple of gentlemen who are
particularly engaged.'

'I had no intention to offend,' said the old man, looking anxiously at
the cards. 'I thought that--'

'But you had no right to think, sir,' retorted the other. 'What the
devil has a man at your time of life to do with thinking?'

'Now bully boy,' said the stout man, raising his eyes from his cards
for the first time, 'can't you let him speak?'

The landlord, who had apparently resolved to remain neutral until he
knew which side of the question the stout man would espouse, chimed in
at this place with 'Ah, to be sure, can't you let him speak, Isaac
List?'

'Can't I let him speak,' sneered Isaac in reply, mimicking as nearly as
he could, in his shrill voice, the tones of the landlord. 'Yes, I can
let him speak, Jemmy Groves.'

'Well then, do it, will you?' said the landlord.

Mr List's squint assumed a portentous character, which seemed to
threaten a prolongation of this controversy, when his companion, who
had been looking sharply at the old man, put a timely stop to it.

'Who knows,' said he, with a cunning look, 'but the gentleman may have
civilly meant to ask if he might have the honour to take a hand with
us!'

'I did mean it,' cried the old man. 'That is what I mean. That is
what I want now!'

'I thought so,' returned the same man. 'Then who knows but the
gentleman, anticipating our objection to play for love, civilly desired
to play for money?'

The old man replied by shaking the little purse in his eager hand, and
then throwing it down upon the table, and gathering up the cards as a
miser would clutch at gold.

'Oh! That indeed,' said Isaac; 'if that's what the gentleman meant, I
beg the gentleman's pardon. Is this the gentleman's little purse? A
very pretty little purse. Rather a ligh