med somehow (he could not tell why) to go
penetrating into him to such an extent that he could bear it no longer.

"If my gaze penetrated you, as you say it did," said the Stranger,
"would to God it had carried with it the conviction of the threatening
peril in which you stand. In your gladness of heart, with all your
youthful unknowingness, you are hovering on the very brink of a
terrible abyss. One single impulse, and into it you fall, without the
possibility of rescue. In one word, you are on the point of becoming a
passionate gambler, and of going to perdition."

The Baron assured him that he was completely mistaken. He explained to
him how it was that he had been led at first to go to the tables, and
that the true love of play was completely absent from him--that all he
desired was to lose a few hundred louis, and, having accomplished that,
he would play no more; but that, up to this time, he had had the most
extraordinary luck.

"Alas!" cried the Stranger, "it is just that very luck which is the
most terrible, mocking temptation of the Infernal Power. Just this very
luck of yours, Baron, the whole way in which you have been led on to
play, the whole style of your playing, and everything connected with
the matter, show but too plainly how your interest in it keeps on
increasing and increasing. Everything about it reminds me only too
clearly of the fate of an unfortunate fellow who begun exactly as you
have done. This was why I could not take my eyes from you, why I could
scarce refrain from telling you in words what my eyes intended to say
to you, namely, 'For heaven's sake look at the fiends that are
stretching out their talons to drag you down to perdition;' that is
what I longed to cry out to you. I wished to make your acquaintance,
and in that I have succeeded. Let me tell you the story of the
unfortunate man to whom I have referred, and then perhaps you will see
that it is no idle cobweb of my brain which makes me see you to be in
the most imminent peril, and that I give you fair warning."

They sate down on a seat which was in a lonely place, and the Stranger
commenced as follows. "The same brilliant gifts which distinguish you,
Baron, procured for the Chevalier Menars the respect and admiration of
men, and rendered him the beloved of women. Only as far as wealth was
concerned fortune had not been so kind to him as to you. He was on the
confines of penury, and nothing but the most scrupulous economy enable