s something to
be gained for him as well as herself.

When the looker-on wonders idly at the strength of ties such as those
which bound together these two, and the length of their duration, he
has never considered their nature--the similarity of tastes,
similarity of pursuits, and the crowning fact of the mutual benefit
derived from such association.

Find a man who lives by successful manipulations of the hand-book of
chance, and who bows to the deity of three aces; who finds victims in
fortified places, and whose most hazardous scheme is surest of
success; who walks abroad the admired of his contemporaries, who envy
him his position as fortune's favorite in proportion as they ply their
own similar trade near the foot of the ladder of chance; who shows to
men the dress and manner of a gentleman, and to the angels the heart
of a fiend--and you will find that man aided and abetted, upheld and
applauded, by a woman, his fitting companion by nature or education.
She is unscrupulous as he, daring as he, finding him victims that his
arm could not reach; plying the finer branch of a dangerous but
profitable trade; sharing his prosperity, rescuing from adversity;
valued because necessary, and knowing her value therefore fearing no
rival.

Cora was beautiful in Davlin's eyes, and secure in his affections,
because she was valuable, even necessary, to him. He cared for her
because in so doing he was caring for himself, and placing any "card"
in her hands was only the surest means of enlarging his own pack.
While she, for whether a woman is good or bad she is ever the slave of
her own heart, recognizing the fact of the mutual benefit resulting
from their comradeship, and improving, in her character of a woman of
the world, every opportunity to profit by him, yet she saw in him the
one man who possessed her love. Though the life she had led had worn
out all the romantic tendencies of her nature, and had turned the
"languishing of her eye" into sharp glances in the direction of the
main chance, still she lavished upon him the best of her heart, and
held his interest ever the equal of her own. After the manner of such,
they were loyal to each other.

"Then," pursued Lucian, "listen, and a tale I will unfold."

In his own way, he proceeded to describe the intended victim; his
home, his wealth, his state of solitude, together with the facts he
had gathered up here and there relative to his leading characteristics
and weaknesses,