I feel
in the vein. Come, Oscar, we'll make an end of them!"

Georges and his partner lost five games running. After losing the
thousand francs Oscar was seized with the fury of play and insisted on
taking the cards himself. By the result of a chance not at all uncommon
with those who play for the first time, he won. But Georges bewildered
him with advice; told him when to throw the cards, and even snatched
them from his hand; so that this conflict of wills and intuitions
injured his vein. By three o'clock in the morning, after various changes
of fortune, and still drinking punch, Oscar came down to his last
hundred francs. He rose with a heavy head, completely stupefied, took a
few steps forward, and fell upon a sofa in the boudoir, his eyes closing
in a leaden sleep.

"Mariette," said Fanny Beaupre to Godeschal's sister, who had come in
about two o'clock, "do you dine here to-morrow? Camusot and Pere Cardot
are coming, and we'll have some fun."

"What!" cried Florentine, "and my old fellow never told me!"

"He said he'd tell you to-morrow morning," remarked Fanny Beaupre.

"The devil take him and his orgies!" exclaimed Florentine. "He and
Camusot are worse than magistrates or stage-managers. But we have very
good dinners here, Mariette," she continued. "Cardot always orders them
from Chevet's; bring your Duc de Maufrigneuse and we'll make them dance
like Tritons."

Hearing the names of Cardot and Camusot, Oscar made an effort to throw
off his sleep; but he could only mutter a few words which were not
understood, and then he fell back upon the silken cushions.

"You'll have to keep him here all night," said Fanny Beaupre, laughing,
to Florentine.

"Oh! poor boy! he is drunk with punch and despair both. It is the second
clerk in your brother's office," she said to Mariette. "He has lost
the money his master gave him for some legal affair. He wanted to drown
himself; so I lent him a thousand francs, but those brigands Finot and
Giroudeau won them from him. Poor innocent!"

"But we ought to wake him," said Mariette. "My brother won't make light
of it, nor his master either."

"Oh, wake him if you can, and carry him off with you!" said Florentine,
returning to the salon to receive the adieux of some departing guests.

Presently those who remained began what was called "character dancing,"
and by the time it was broad daylight, Florentine, tired out, went to
bed, oblivious to Oscar, who was still in the boudoi