The man with the rough voice was a big fellow of middle age, with large black whiskers, broad cheeks, a coarse, wide mouth, and bull neck. The other man, whom his companion had called Isaac, was of a more slender figure—stooping, and high in the shoulders—with a very evil face.
"Now, old gentleman," said Isaac, looking round, "do you know either of us? This side of the screen is private, sir."
The old man replied by shaking the little purse in his eager hand, and then throwing it down upon the table, and gathering up the cards as a miser would clutch at gold.
"Oh! That, indeed," said Isaac; "if that's what the gentleman meant, I beg the gentleman's pardon. Is this the gentleman's purse? A very pretty little purse. Rather a light purse," added Isaac, throwing it into the air and catching it again, "but enough to amuse a gentleman for half an hour or so."
The child, in a perfect agony, drew her grandfather aside, and begged him, even then, to come away.
"Come, and we may be so happy," said the child.
"We will be happy," replied the old man. "Let me go, Nell. I shall but win back my own; and it's all for thee, my darling."
"God help us!" cried the child. "Oh, what hard fortune brought us here?"
"Hush!" said the old man, laying his hand upon her mouth. "We must not blame fortune, or she shuns us; I have found that out."
As he spoke he drew a chair to the table; and the other three closing round it at the same time, the game began.