that unlucky
game--it withdrew all my attention from my hand; and I may safely say,
your rueful countenance has stood me in a thousand pounds. If I could
transfer thy long visage to canvass, I should have both my revenge and
my money; for a correct resemblance would be worth not a penny less than
the original has cost me."

"You are welcome to your jest, my lord," said Mowbray, "it has been well
paid for; and I will serve you in ten thousand at the same rate. What
say you?" he proceeded, taking up and shuffling the cards, "will you do
yourself more justice in another game?--Revenge, they say, is sweet."

"I have no appetite for it this evening," said the Earl, gravely; "if I
had, Mowbray, you might come by the worse. I do not _always_ call a
point without showing it."

"Your lordship is out of humour with yourself for a blunder that might
happen to any man--it was as much my good luck as a good hand would have
been, and so fortune be praised."

"But what if with this Fortune had nought to do?" replied Lord
Etherington.--"What if, sitting down with an honest fellow and a friend
like yourself, Mowbray, a man should rather choose to lose his own
money, which he could afford, than to win what it might distress his
friend to part with?"

"Supposing a case so far out of supposition, my lord," answered Mowbray,
who felt the question ticklish--"for, with submission, the allegation is
easily made, and is totally incapable of proof--I should say, no one had
a right to think for me in such a particular, or to suppose that I
played for a higher stake than was convenient."

"And thus your friend, poor devil," replied Lord Etherington, "would
lose his money, and run the risk of a quarrel into the boot!--We will
try it another way--Suppose this good-humoured and simple-minded
gamester had a favour of the deepest import to ask of his friend, and
judged it better to prefer his request to a winner than to a loser?"

"If this applies to me, my lord," replied Mowbray, "it is necessary I
should learn how I can oblige your lordship."

"That is a word soon spoken, but so difficult to be recalled, that I am
almost tempted to pause--but yet it must be said.--Mowbray, you have a
sister."

Mowbray started.--"I have indeed a sister, my lord; but I can conceive
no case in which her name can enter with propriety into our present
discussion."

"Again in the menacing mood!" said Lord Etherington, in his former tone;
"now, here is a prett