poetry, shook
his head. 'Oh! bother,' he said, 'let's have some game that Christians
play.' Mr Fisker declared himself ready for any game,--irrespective of
religious prejudices.

It must be explained that the gambling at the Beargarden had gone on
with very little interruption, and that on the whole Sir Felix Carbury
kept his luck. There had of course been vicissitudes, but his star had
been in the ascendant. For some nights together this had been so
continual that Mr Miles Grendall had suggested to his friend Lord
Grasslough that there must be foul play. Lord Grasslough, who had not
many good gifts, was, at least, not suspicious, and repudiated the
idea. 'We'll keep an eye on him,' Miles Grendall had said. 'You may do
as you like, but I'm not going to watch any one,' Grasslough had
replied. Miles 'had watched,' and had watched in vain, and it may as
well be said at once that Sir Felix, with all his faults, was not as
yet a blackleg. Both of them now owed Sir Felix a considerable sum of
money, as did also Dolly Longestaffe, who was not present on this
occasion. Latterly very little ready money had passed hands,--very
little in proportion to the sums which had been written down on paper,--
though Sir Felix was still so well in funds as to feel himself
justified in repudiating any caution that his mother might give him.

When I.O.U.'s have for some time passed freely in such a company as
that now assembled the sudden introduction of a stranger is very
disagreeable, particularly when that stranger intends to start for San
Francisco on the following morning. If it could be arranged that the
stranger should certainly lose, no doubt then he would be regarded as
a godsend. Such strangers have ready money in their pockets, a portion
of which would be felt to descend like a soft shower in a time of
drought. When these dealings in unsecured paper have been going on for
a considerable time real bank notes come to have a loveliness which
they never possessed before. But should the stranger win, then there
may arise complications incapable of any comfortable solution. In such
a state of things some Herr Vossner must be called in, whose terms are
apt to be ruinous. On this occasion things did not arrange themselves
comfortably. From the very commencement Fisker won, and quite a budget
of little papers fell into his possession, many of which were passed
to him from the hands of Sir Felix,--bearing, however, a 'G' intended to
stand