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final and decisive) at the chambers of a fellow-commoner, (Mr. Preston,)
equally intimate with both, but who, to do him Justice, entertained
not even a remote suspicion of my design. To give to this a better
colouring, I had contrived to have assembled a party of some eight or
ten, and was solicitously careful that the introduction of cards should
appear accidental, and originate in the proposal of my contemplated
dupe himself. To be brief upon a vile topic, none of the low finesse was
omitted, so customary upon similar occasions that it is a just matter
for wonder how any are still found so besotted as to fall its victim.
We had protracted our sitting far into the night, and I had at length
effected the manoeuvre of getting Glendinning as my sole antagonist. The
game, too, was my favorite ecarte! The rest of the company, interested
in the extent of our play, had abandoned their own cards, and were
standing around us as spectators. The parvenu, who had been induced
by my artifices in the early part of the evening, to drink deeply, now
shuffled, dealt, or played, with a wild nervousness of manner for which
his intoxication, I thought, might partially, but could not altogether
account. In a very short period he had become my debtor to a large
amount, when, having taken a long draught of port, he did precisely
what I had been coolly anticipating--he proposed to double our already
extravagant stakes. With a well-feigned show of reluctance, and not
until after my repeated refusal had seduced him into some angry words
which gave a color of pique to my compliance, did I finally comply. The
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