over him. " Well, it took you some time to
finish that old fellow, Calvert!"

"He finished me, which was worse. Have
you got a cigar?"

"Do you mean that you lost all your winnings?"

"Yes, and your five thousand francs besides,
not to speak of a borrowed thousand from some
one I have given my card to. A bore, isn't it?"

"It's more than a bore— it's a bad business.
I don't know how I'll settle it with the landlord."

"Give him a bill, he'll never be troublesome;
and, as to your wife's money, tell her frankly
you lost it at play. Isn't that the best way,
madame?" said he, addressing a young and
pretty woman at his side. " I am advising my
friend to be honest with his wife, and confess
that he spent his money in very pleasant company.
Come along out of this stuffy place.
Let us have a walk in the fresh cool air, and a
cigar, if you have one. I often wonder," said
he, as they gained the street, " how the fellows
who write books and want to get up sensation
scenes, don't come and do something of this
sort. There's a marvellous degree of stimulant
in being cleaned out, not only of one's own cash,
but of one's credit; and by credit I mean it in
the French sense, which says, 'Le crédit est
l'argent des autres.' "

"I wish you had not lost that money," muttered
the other.

"So do I. I have combativeness very strong,
and I hate being beaten by any one in anything."

"I'm thinking of the money!" said the other,
doggedly.

"Naturally, for it was yours. ' 'Twas mine,
'tis his,' as Hamlet has it. Great fellow, Hamlet!
I don't suppose that any one ever drew a character
wherein Gentleman was so distinctly
painted as Hamlet. He combined all the
grandest ideas of his class with a certain
' disinvoltura'— a sort of high-bred levity— that
relieved his sternness, and made him much
better company than such fellows as Laertes and
Horatio."

"When you saw luck turning, why didn't you
leave off?"

"Why not ask why the luck turned before I
left off? That would be the really philosophic
inquiry. Isn't it chilly?"

"I'm not cold, but I'm greatly provoked."

"So am I for you; for I haven't got enough
to repay you, but trust me to arrange the
matter in the morning. The landlord will see
the tiling with the eyes of his calling; he'll
soon perceive that the son-in-law of a man who
travels with two carriages, and can't speak one
word of French, is one to be trusted. I mean
him to cash a bill for us before I leave. Old
Rep's white hat and brown spencer are guarantees
for fifty thousand francs in any city of
Europe. There's a solvent vulgarity in the very
creak of his shoes."

"Oh! he's not a very distinguished-looking
person, certainly," said Barnard, who now resented
the liberty he had himself led the way to.

"There I differ with you; I call him eminently
distinguished, and I'd rather be able to
' come' that cravat tie, and have the pattern of
the dark-green waistcoat with the red spots, than
I'd have— what shall I say?— all the crisp bank
paper I lost awhile ago. You are not going in,
surely?" cried he, as the other rang violently at
the bell of the hotel.

"Yes; I am very tired of this fooling. I wish
you hadn't lost that money."

"Do you remember how it goes, Bob?

His weary song,
The whole day long,
"Was still l'argent, l'argent, l'argent!

She is complaining that though the linnet is
singing in the trees, and the trout leaping in the
river, her tiresome husband could only liken
them to the clink of the gold as it fell on the
counter? Why, man, you'll wake the dead if
you ring in that fashion!"

"I want to get in."

"Here comes the fellow at last: how disgusted
he'll be to find there's not a five-franc
piece between us."

Scarcely was the door opened than Barnard
passed in, and left him without even a good
night.

NEW WORK BY MR. DICKENS,
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