t purse,' added Isaac, throwing
it into the air and catching it dexterously, 'but enough to amuse a
gentleman for half an hour or so.'

'We'll make a four-handed game of it, and take in Groves,' said the
stout man. 'Come, Jemmy.'

The landlord, who conducted himself like one who was well used to such
little parties, approached the table and took his seat. The child, in
a perfect agony, drew her grandfather aside, and implored him, even
then, to come away.

'Come; and we may be so happy,' said the child.

'We WILL be happy,' replied the old man hastily. 'Let me go, Nell.
The means of happiness are on the cards and the dice. We must rise
from little winnings to great. There's little to be won here; but
great will come in time. I shall but win back my own, and it's all for
thee, my darling.'

'God help us!' cried the child. 'Oh! what hard fortune brought us
here?'

'Hush!' rejoined the old man laying his hand upon her mouth, 'Fortune
will not bear chiding. We must not reproach her, or she shuns us; I
have found that out.'

'Now, mister,' said the stout man. 'If you're not coming yourself,
give us the cards, will you?'

'I am coming,' cried the old man. 'Sit thee down, Nell, sit thee down
and look on. Be of good heart, it's all for thee--all--every penny.
I don't tell them, no, no, or else they wouldn't play, dreading the
chance that such a cause must give me. Look at them. See what they
are and what thou art. Who doubts that we must win!'

'The gentleman has thought better of it, and isn't coming,' said Isaac,
making as though he would rise from the table. 'I'm sorry the
gentleman's daunted--nothing venture, nothing have--but the gentleman
knows best.'

'Why I am ready. You have all been slow but me,' said the old man. 'I
wonder who is more anxious to begin than I.'

As he spoke he drew a chair to the table; and the other three closing
round it at the same time, the game commenced.

The child sat by, and watched its progress with a troubled mind.
Regardless of the run of luck, and mindful only of the desperate
passion which had its hold upon her grandfather, losses and gains were
to her alike. Exulting in some brief triumph, or cast down by a
defeat, there he sat so wild and restless, so feverishly and intensely
anxious, so terribly eager, so ravenous for the paltry stakes, that she
could have almost better borne to see him dead. And yet she was the
innocent cause of all this torture, an