ure upon the heinous sin of card-playing, that I thought I should
sink into the ground; after about half an hour's inveighing against
card-playing, he began to soften his tone, and with a long sigh told me
that at one time of his life he had been a young man himself, and had
occasionally used the cards; he then began to ask me some questions about
card-playing, which questions I afterwards found were to pump from me
what I knew about the science. After a time he asked me whether I had
got my cards with me, and on my telling him I had, he expressed a wish to
see them, whereupon I took the pack out of my pocket, and showed it to
him; he looked at it very attentively, and at last, giving another deep
sigh, he said, that though he was nearly weaned from the vanities of the
world, he had still an inclination to see whether he had entirely lost
the little skill which at one time he possessed. When I heard him speak
in this manner, I told him that if his reverence was inclined for a game
of cards, I should be very happy to play one with him; scarcely had I
uttered these words than he gave a third sigh, and looked so very much
like a saint that I was afraid he was going to excommunicate me. Nothing
of the kind, however, for presently he gets up and locks the door, then
sitting down at the table, he motioned me to do the same, which I did,
and in five minutes there we were playing at cards, his reverence and
myself.

'I soon found that his reverence knew quite as much about card-playing as
I did. Divil a trick was there connected with cards that his reverence
did not seem awake to. As, however, we were not playing for money, this
circumstance did not give me much uneasiness; so we played game after
game for two hours, when his reverence, having business, told me I might
go, so I took up my cards, made my obedience, and left him. The next day
I had other games with him, and so on for a very long time, still playing
for nothing. At last his reverence grew tired of playing for nothing,
and proposed that we should play for money. Now I had no desire to play
with his reverence for money, as I knew that doing so would bring on a
quarrel. As long as we were playing for nothing, I could afford to let
his reverence use what tricks he pleased; but if we played for money, I
couldn't do so. If he played his tricks, I must play mine, and use every
advantage to save my money; and there was one I possessed which his
reverence did not.