h a faint sigh of '_Gagne!_' he gave up
the ghost.

"In her deep sorrow, Angela could not help an eery shudder at the
manner of his departure. The remembrance of that night, when she had
first seen the Chevalier as the most hardened reprobate of a gambler,
came vividly to her mind, and the thought came into her soul that he
might some day throw off his angel's mask and, jeering at her in his
pristine devilishness, begin his old life again.

"This fearful presentiment was to come but too true.

"Deeply shocked as the Chevalier was at the notion of old Francesco
Vertua's having gone into the next world heedless of the consolations
of the Church, and unable to leave off thinking of the former sinful
life, still, somehow--he could not tell why--it brought the memory of
the game back to his mind again, so that every night in his dreams he
was presiding at the banque once more, heaping up fresh treasures.

"Since, Angela, impressed by the remembrance how her husband had
appeared to her at first, found it impossible to maintain the trustful
affection of her earlier wedded days, mistrust, at the same time, came
into his soul of her, and he attributed her embarrassment to that
secret which at once disturbed her peace, and remained unrevealed to
him. This suspicion produced in him misery and annoyance, which he
expressed in utterances which pained Angela. By a natural psychical
reflex action, the remembrance of the unfortunate Duvernet revived in
her mind, and with it the miserable sense that the love which had
blossomed forth in her young heart was lost and bidden adieu to for
ever. The discord grew greater and greater, till it reached such a
pitch that the Chevalier came to the conclusion that the life of
retirement which he was leading was a complete mistake, and longed with
all his heart to be out into the world again.

"In fact, his evil star began to get into the ascendant. And that which
inward dissatisfaction commenced, was completed by a wicked fellow who
had formerly been a croupier at his banque, and who, by various crafty
speeches, brought matters to such a point that the Chevalier came to
consider his present mode of existence childish and ridiculous, and
could not comprehend how, for the sake of a woman, he should be
abandoning a life which appeared to him the only one worth living.

"So very soon the Chevalier's banque, with its heaps of gold, was going
on again more brilliantly than ever. His luck had not fo