"'Spare me your reproaches,' I said. 'You have been a good friend, and I have paid no heed to your warnings. Wind up my affairs, and tell me how much I have left.'
"The following day he informed me that I still had three thousand pounds I could call my own.
"'Would you like a check for it?' he asked.
"I answered, 'Yes,' and he gave it to me.
"'And here,' he said, 'my stewardship ends. You must give me a full quittance of all accounts between us.'
"I drew up the paper at his dictation. He preferred, he said, that the quittance should be in my own handwriting; and when he had done I added words of thanks for the services he had rendered me, and signed the document.
"That night he accompanied me to a club, and watched my play. I won five hundred pounds, and we walked away together, late in the morning, in the highest spirits. He parted from me at the door of my house.
"'Will you play to-morrow night?' he asked.
"'Of course I shall play to-morrow night," I replied, 'and every night after that. I will get back every shilling I have lost. Look at what I have done already; I have won five hundred pounds.'
"'It is your only chance of saving your wife and child from beggary,' he said.