o Milan-come to rescue him from the "most
degrading sort of bondage a good fellow could possibly fall into."

They dined splendidly, and sent to engage a box at the Opera; but the
hours passed so pleasantly over their dinner, that they forgot all about
it, and only reached the theatre a few minutes before it closed.

"Now for the--what do you call the place?" cried Calvert.

"The Gettone."

"That's it. I'm eager to measure my luck against these Milanais. They
say, besides, no fellow has such a vein as when his life is threatened;
and I remember myself, when I had the yellow fever at Galle, I passed
twenty-one times at ecarte', all because I was given over!"

"What a fellow you are, Calvert!" said the other, with a weak man's
admiration for whatever was great, even in infamy.

"You'll see how I'll clear them out But what have I done with my purse?
Left it on my dressing table, I suppose they are honest in the hotel?"

"Of course they are. It's all safe; and I've more money about me than
you want Old Rep handed me three thousand francs this morning to pay the
bill, and when I saw you, I forgot all about it."

"Another element of luck," cried Calvert, joyously. "The money that
does not belong to a man always wins. Why, there's five thousand francs
here," said Calvert, as he counted over the notes.

"Two of them are Fanny's, She got her quarter's allowance yesterday.
Stingy, isn't it? Only three hundred a year."

"It's downright disgraceful. She ought to have eight at the very least;
but wait till we come back from Basle. You'll not believe what a change
I'll work in that old fellow, when I take him in hand."

By this time they had reached the Gettone, and, after a brief colloquy,
were suffered to pass up stairs and enter the rooms.

"Oh, it's faro they play; my own game," whispered Calvert, "I was afraid
the fellows might have indulged in some of their own confounded things,
which no foreigner can compete in. At faro I fear none."

While Barnard joined a group of persons round a roulette-table, where
fashionably-dressed women adventured their franc pieces along with men
clad in the most humble mode, Calvert took his place among the faro
players. The boldness of his play, and the reckless way he adventured
his money, could not conceal from their practised acuteness that he was
master of the game, and they watched him attentively.

"I think I have nearly cleaned them out, Bob," cried he to his friend,
as he po