ged
the little table, and down we sat to our party.

'There,' said she, laughing, and throwing her purse on the table, 'I
can only afford to lose so much; but you may win all that if you're
fortunate.' A rouleau of louis escaped at the instant, and fell about
the table.

'Agreed,' said I, indulging the quiz. 'I am an inveterate gambler, and
always play high. What shall be our stakes?'

'Fifty, I suppose,' said she, still laughing: 'we can increase our bets
afterwards.'

After some little badinage, we each placed a double louis-d'or on the
board, and began. For a while the game employed our attention; but
gradually we fell into conversation, the cards gradually dropped
listlessly from our hands, the tricks remained unclaimed, and we could
never decide whose turn it was to deal.

'This wearies you, I see,' said she; 'perhaps you'd like to stop?'

'By no means,' said I. 'I like the game, of all things.' This I said
rather because I was a considerable winner at the time than from any
other motive; and so we played on till eleven o'clock, at which hour I
usually took my leave, and by which time my gains had increased to some
seventy louis.

'Is it not fortunate,' said she, laughing, 'that eleven has struck? You
'd certainly have won all my gold; and now you must leave off in the
midst of your good fortune--and so, _bonsoir, et a revanche_.'

Each evening now saw our little party at ecarte usurp the place of the
drive and the opera; and though our successes ran occasionally high at
either side, yet on the whole neither was a winner; and we jested
about the impartiality with which fortune treated us both. At last,
one evening, eleven struck when I was a greater winner than ever, and I
thought I saw a little pique in her manner at the enormous run of luck I
had experienced throughout.

'Come,' said she, laughing, 'you have really wounded a national feeling
in a Polish heart--you have asserted a superiority at a game of skill.
I must beat you;' and with that she placed five louis on the table.
She lost. Again the same stake followed, and again the same fortune,
notwithstanding that I did all in my power to avoid winning--of course
without exciting her suspicions.

'And so,' said she, as she dealt the cards, 'Ireland is really so
picturesque as you say?'

'Beautifully so,' replied I, as, warmed up by a favourite topic, I
launched forth into a description of the mountain scenery of the south
and west. The rich emera