ank (it
appears Brown has chosen one of the unlucky days to back his lordship).
He will eat his supper as gaily after a great victory as after a signal
defeat; and we know that to win with magnanimity requires much more
constancy than to lose. His sleep will not be disturbed by one event
or the other. He will play skittles all the morning with perfect
contentment, romp with children in the forenoon (he is the friend of
half the children in the place), or he will cheerfully leave the green
table and all the risk and excitement there, to take a hand at sixpenny
whist with General Fogey, or to give the six Miss Fogeys a turn each in
the ballroom. From H.R.H. the Prince Royal of ----, who is the greatest
guest at Baden, down to Brown the bagman, who does not consider himself
the smallest, Lord Kew is hail fellow with everybody, and has a kind
word from and for all.

CHAPTER XXVIII. In which Clive begins to see the World

In the company assembled at Baden, Clive found one or two old
acquaintances; among them his friend of Paris, M. de Florac, not in
quite so brilliant a condition as when Newcome had last met him on the
Boulevard. Florac owned that Fortune had been very unkind to him
at Baden; and, indeed, she had not only emptied his purse, but his
portmanteaus, jewel-box, and linen-closet--the contents of all of which
had ranged themselves on the red and black against Monsieur Benazet's
crown-pieces: whatever side they took was, however, the unlucky one.
"This campaign has been my Moscow, mon cher," Florac owned to Clive. "I
am conquered by Benazet; I have lost in almost every combat. I have lost
my treasure, my baggage, my ammunition of war, everything but my honour,
which, au reste, Mons. Benazet will not accept as a stake; if he
would, there are plenty here, believe me, who would set it on the
trente-et-quarante. Sometimes I have had a mind to go home; my mother,
who is an angel all forgiveness, would receive her prodigal, and kill
the fatted veal for me. But what will you? He annoys me--the domestic
veal. Besides, my brother the Abbe, though the best of Christians, is
a Jew upon certain matters; a Benazet who will not troquer absolution
except against repentance; and I have not for a sou of repentance in my
pocket! I have been sorry, yes--but it was because odd came up in
place of even, or the reverse. The accursed apres has chased me like a
remorse, and when black has come up I have wished myself converted to