and unrestrained, that soon reassuring glances were exchanged between the masquerader and myself.
For what followed I am, perhaps, to be in a measure blamed. Lulled into security by the conduct of our enemy, to some extent I gave the rein to my own desires. From the first I had been winning steadily, and my appetite for play, always vigorous, seemed to increase as my guineas grew. True, half of these gains had originally been money of my own, Prue having been furnished with means for this diversion from my purse, but the Captain was undoubtedly a loser.
"There!" he cries at last, "that completes the second hundred. And under your leave, madam, 'tis high time, I think, the loser called, 'hold, enough!'"
"Then you do not care to work your evil vein out, sir?" says I.
"I should be only too glad to try, dear lady," he replied, "if I had not other work to do. Besides, you will observe that, strive as I may, I cannot scrape together another guinea or another bank-*bill."
As a proof he fumbled with his pockets mightily. He exposed the linings of those in his coat, and playfully remarked:
"You see, quite empty!"
But how little did we divine his strategy! The next moment showed that this search for money was but a pretext; and a spasm of mingled rage and
