‘It is as you say,’ returned Monteagle quite warmly—‘your views coincide with mine exactly. It is singular, but I had supposed you to be a man of less reflection and philosophy. I now perceive that you are a man of thought—a—’
‘Oh! I have my views as well as others, that’s all. You must know that I was intended for a minister, and went to Andover. But come, just for amusement let’s try our luck a little here. You can stop when you please, you know.’
The proposition was rather sudden; Blodget saw the flush that shot into Monteagle’s cheek, and quickly added—‘To be a man of the world it is absolutely necessary to know a little about playing, even if you don’t practice. All the natives play, and let me tell you that a spirited Margaritta regards a young man as a milk-sop who never lost or won a slug.’
Something struck the mind of Monteagle at that moment, and he remained for a couple of minutes in a brown study, and seemed wholly unconscious of the presence of Blodget. The latter turned his face aside and smiled. It was a self-satisfied smile.
At length said Monteagle, looking up, ‘How long have you known Mr. Brown, the partner of Vandewater?’
‘Oh, these dozen years. He and I have met here often.’
‘What! does Mr. Brown play?’
‘He! Bless your soul—’suddenly checking himself—‘he plays the same as you and I might, just a little for sport.—That’s all: he’s not a heavy player; or, I might say it is more for amusement than anything else that he occasionally—very seldom, though—lays down a slug.’
There are two classes of people who are quick at detecting villainy, the accomplished rogue and the honest, simple-hearted man. The sight of the latter is the more clear of the two as far as it goes, while the former measures more correctly the extent of the intended deception. But Monteagle was, at this moment, disposed to interpret every thing in the most favorable manner, and fancied that he saw in Blodget’s hesitation a generous endeavor to conceal the picadilloes of Mr. Brown, his employer. He felt convinced that Blodget knew more than he was willing to tell, and there rushed upon his recollection several little circumstances of a somewhat equivocal character connected with the conduct of Mr. Vandewater’s partner.
Just then, a stout, rude, and hairy man, nearly as broad as he was long, with large goggle eyes, and a low, retreating forehead, came swaggering up to Blodget, followed by a large and very savage-looking dog.