Let him win what
he might, his old haunts were now closed against him. What good would
money do him, living such a life as he must now be compelled to pass? As
he thought of this the five-and-twenty napoleons on the table were taken
away from him almost without consciousness on his part.
At that moment there came a voice in his ear,--not the voice of his
attending friend, but one of which he accurately knew the lisping,
fiendish sound: "Ah, Captain Scarborough, I thought it vas posshible you
might be here. Dis ish a very nice place." Our friend looked round and
glared at the man, and felt that it was impossible that this occupation
should be continued under his eyes. "Yesh; it was likely. How do you
like Monte Carlo? You have plenty of money--plenty!" The man was small,
and oily, and black-haired, and beaky-nosed, with a perpetual smile on
his face, unless when on special occasions he would be moved to the
expression of deep anger. Of the modern Hebrews a most complete Hebrew;
but a man of purpose, who never did things by halves, who could count
upon good courage within, and who never allowed himself to be foiled by
misadventure. He was one who, beginning with nothing, was determined to
die a rich man, and was likely to achieve his purpose.
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