" said I, "tell her to behave better or else I will send
her back to her mother's."

She gave me no reply, but took a handful of silver and fled. I had not
time to reflect on this singular conduct, for Annette came in rattling
her crowns in her pocket, and promised, with a kiss, not to make me angry
any more.

Such was my niece. She knew I adored her, and she loved me; but she did
not want me to be her lover, though she made use of the ascendancy which
my passion gave her. In the code of feminine coquetry such cases are
numerous.

Possano came uninvited to see me, and congratulated me on my victory of
the evening before.

"Who told you about it?"

"I have just been at the coffee-house, where everybody is talking of it.
It was a wonderful victory, for those biribanti are knaves of the first
water. Your adventure is making a great noise, for everyone says that you
could not have broken their bank unless you had made an agreement with
the man that kept the bag."

"My dear fellow, I am tired of you. Here, take this piece of money for
your wife and be off."

The piece of money I had given him was a gold coin worth a hundred
Genoese livres, which the Government had struck for internal commerce;
there were also pieces of fifty and twenty-five livres.

I was going on with my calculations when Clairmont brought me a note. It
was from Irene, and contained a tender invitation to breakfast with her.
I did not know that she was in Genoa, and the news gave me very great
pleasure. I locked up my money, dressed in haste, and started out to see
her. I found her in good and well-furnished rooms, and her old father,
Count Rinaldi, embraced me with tears of joy.

After the ordinary compliments had been passed, the old man proceeded to
congratulate me on my winnings of the night before.

"Three thousand sequins!" he exclaimed, "that is a grand haul indeed."

"Quite so."

"The funny part of it is that the man who keeps the bag is in the pay of
the others."

"What strikes you as funny in that?"

"Why, he gained half without any risk, otherwise he would not have been
likely to have entered into an agreement with you."

"You think, then, that it was a case of connivance?"

"Everybody says so; indeed what else could it be? The rascal has made his
fortune without running any risk. All the Greeks in Genoa are applauding
him and you."

"As the greater rascal of the two?"

"They don't call you a rascal; they say you're a grea