‘“Did it, by Jove?” replied he, with a half saucy laugh; “I’ll wager a pony, notwithstanding, that you never played better in your life.”
‘“Played! why, I never touched a card,” said I, in horror and amazement.
‘“I wish you hadn’t, that’s all,” said he, while he took a pocket-book from his pocket, and proceeded to open it on the bed. “If you hadn’t, I should have been somewhat of a richer man this morning.”
‘“I can only tell you,” said I, as I rubbed my eyes, and endeavoured to waken up more completely—“I can only tell you that I don’t remember anything of what you allude to, nor can I believe that I would have broken a firm resolve I made against play——”
‘“Gently, sir, gently,” said he, in a low, smooth voice; “be a little careful, I beseech you; what you have just said amounts to something very like a direct contradiction of my words. Please to remember, sir, that we were strangers to each other yesterday morning. But to be brief, was your last bet a double or quit, or only a ten-pound note, for on that depends whether I owe you two hundred and sixty, or two hundred and seventy pounds? Can you set me right on that point—they made such a noise at the time, I can’t be clear about it.”
‘“I protest, sir,” said I, once more, “this is all a dream to me; as I have told you already, I never played——”
‘“You never played, sir?”
‘“I mean, I never knew I played, or I have no remembrance of it now.”
‘“Well, young gentleman, fortune treats you better when asleep than she does me with my eyes open, and as I have no time to lose, for I leave for Bingen in half an hour, I have only to say, here is your money. You may forget what you have won; I have also an obligation, but a stronger one, to remember what I have lost; and as for the ten pounds, shall we say head or tail for it, as we neither of us are quite clear about it?”
‘“Say anything you like, for I firmly believe one or the other of us must be out of our reason.”