Puffendoff

his lordship lost tremendously. lent all the cash he had in hand to the latter, and the former having parted with a very considerable sum in the shape of Bank Post Bills, which he had received on the previous day for an important mercantile transaction, had now in repetition drawn cheques for considerable amounts. As Inglis played on and the tide of bad fortune continued to set fearfully against him, he became more and more excited—he knit his brows, strained his aching eye-balls, and it seemed that the more he endeavoured to concentrate his attention to each convulsively snatched up deal, and to remember what cards were out, the more embarrassed he became, and worse he played. At length patience, temper, all gave way-with a fearful oath he threw down the cards hitherto tremulously held, and swore he was not only losing his senses but his sight. Lord Squanderfield remonstrated and besought his partner to go on and try for better luck. The Count and Fitzgerald remained calm, and the former assured his opponents that the fates did take

these odd freaks, yet the only way to retrieve misfortune was to confront her and determine

on eliciting her favours. Inglis was prevailed upon-but he could not win-again he began to blaspheme, and in Satanie rage again threw down the cards!

"We'll try the dice-the dice!" exclaimed Inglis in a sort of half delirious excitement. "D—this nervousness, I can neither hold my cards nor remember how I played them. Perhaps I can tumble out the dice to better luck-if not by G- I am ruined !"

"Certainly certainly, my dear friend, I'll do anything to accommodate you," answered Puffendoff at the same time, and as if without concern gathering up the cheques and thrusting them into the breast pocket of his vest. "Fitzgerald, of course you don't object. Jemmy it cannot be denied has not been blessed by his stars to-night, and as far as I am interested, I will gladly agree to try some other game by which mere chances may turn the scale to the losers' advantage. You are silent, Fitzgerald-what say you ?”

VOL. II.

X

“Anything,” replied Fitzgerald, doggedly. The dice were brought, and Inglis madly determined on running every risk to gain back some of the heavy sums he had lost.

"Come, Jemmy, here they are, never say die. If you approve my proposal, I'll have a few throws with you first, and they may be spectators?"

"Oh yes, what shall we name? A hundred ?"

"With all my heart," replied Puffendoff. They played, and Inglis won.

"Shall we double the amount ?" asked Inglis.

"Yes, if you

wish."

Inglis won again, and he was somewhat surprised when the Count could lose with a smile. Throw after throw was now made, and for some time Inglis was the winner. His spirits rose with barometrical exactitude, in a relative ratio to his success; his breathing became hurried, and his red dilating eyes rolled in their sockets like balls of fire. Throw after throw was continued, and ere long he had lost what he had briefly won

but he was not to be deterred, he must mend or mar himself ere he desisted. It was now the frenzy of madness with him; throw after throw was still continued, and alas! it was indisputable that the same evil genius which had brooded over him at the card-table, was again turning the current against him. In tremulous agony he tried and tried again, but he could not win! Oath after oath, in all the chilling, fearful intonation of demon profanity, fell from his blanched lips-he stamped on the floor-kicked, in wild gesticulation, the heaps of played cards at his feet-veehemntly with clenched fist hit the table by which he was standing—yet in very delirium he went on! The Count's hand became less steady than ordinary, and his countenance indicated his own subdued, but uneasy state of mind. His lordship begged Inglis to cease, and on some pretext or another, Fitzgerald stole from the room.

"One throw more, for a thousand-and-" the oath made the apartment echo, and he looked a distracted fiend as he uttered it.

"I am now a large winner, and I cannot

of course refuse your request, yet the longer you play the worse appears your success,' said Puffendoff, with whom it was evidently an effort to appear calm, and who unquestionably wished to be off.

"A thousand, and a cheque for an equal amount were placed on the table. The dice were thrown-Inglis lost!

"D-you, Count-I now see what I have fancied-you are a swindler-a robber-a a-villain—the dice are cogged, you scoundrel-I'll swear they-"

"You lie!" said the Count, whose cheek grew ashy, and who for a moment seemed off his guard.

"I do not-I'll swear they are cogged!" "My good friend," exclaimed the Count, in a moment recovering his self-possession, my good friend," repeated he, in taunting accents, essaying to curl his quivering lip into a smile, and at the same time snatching up the dice, "you shall never make such an ungentlemanly-insulting accusation to me again!" As he delivered these words, he threw the dice into the fire, screwed upon his