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result, of course, did but prove how entirely the prey was in my toils;
in less than an hour he had quadrupled his debt. For some time his
countenance had been losing the florid tinge lent it by the wine; but
now, to my astonishment, I perceived that it had grown to a pallor truly
fearful. I say to my astonishment. Glendinning had been represented to
my eager inquiries as immeasurably wealthy; and the sums which he had
as yet lost, although in themselves vast, could not, I supposed, very
seriously annoy, much less so violently affect him. That he was overcome
by the wine just swallowed, was the idea which most readily presented
itself; and, rather with a view to the preservation of my own character
in the eyes of my associates, than from any less interested motive, I
was about to insist, peremptorily, upon a discontinuance of the play,
when some expressions at my elbow from among the company, and an
ejaculation evincing utter despair on the part of Glendinning, gave me
to understand that I had effected his total ruin under circumstances
which, rendering him an object for the pity of all, should have
protected him from the ill offices even of a fiend.
What now might have been my conduct it is difficult to say. The pitiable
condition of my dupe had thrown an air of embarrassed gloom over all;
and, for some moments, a profound silence was maintained, during which I
could not help feeling my cheeks tingle with the many burning glances
of scorn or reproach cast upon me by the less abandoned of the party.
I will even own that an intolerable weight of anxiety was for a
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