'You have lost!' retorted the other savagely, but in the same low tone; 'why not we? Am I for nothing in all this?'
'Come, come, Ulick, don't be in a passion!'
The name and the tone of the speaker startled me. I leaned forward; my very head reeled as I looked. It was Lord Dudley de Vere and Ulick Burke. The rush of passionate excitement that ran through me for a minute or two, to be thus thrown beside the two only enemies I had ever had, unnerved me so far that I could not collect myself. To call them forth at once, and charge them with their baseness towards me; to dare them openly, and denounce them before that crowded assembly—was my first rapid thought. But from this wild thrill of anger I was soon turned, as Burke's voice, elevated to a tone of passion, called out—
'Hold! I am going to bet!'
The banker stopped; the cards still rested in his hands.
'I say, sir, I will do it,' said Burke, turning to De Vere, whose cheek was now pale as death, and whose disordered and haggard air was increased by his having torn off his cravat and opened the collar of his shirt. 'I say I will; do you gainsay me?' continued he, laying on the words an accent of such contemptuous insolence that even De Vere's eye fired at it. 'Vingt mille francs, noir,' said Burke, placing his last billet on the table; and the words were scarce spoken when the banker cried out—
'Noir perd et passe.'
A horrible curse broke from Burke as he fixed his staring eyeballs on the outspread cards, and counted over the numbers to himself.
'You see, Burke,' said De Vere.
'Don't speak to me, now, damn you!' said the other, with clenched teeth.