"My only feeling for you, madame," said Ernest, with meaning, "would be gratitude, were a certain paper destroyed."
"What is the meaning of all this?" asked the father of Ernest, coming forward.
"It means," said Ernest, tearing to atoms the promissory note he received from the widow's hands, "that I had very ugly dreams last night—I dreamed that I played at rouge-et-noir, and lost all the money you gave me to purchase my commission with, and then that I made up the loss by promising——"
"Hush!" said the widow, laying her finger on her lips.
"Then it was all a dream," said the old man.
"Look at my uniform," replied the captain.
"And what did you mean in the story you told me just now?" asked the old man.
"Forget it, father," said Ernest. "Dear Meena, look up, my love. It is our wedding day; and if you do but smile, I'm the happiest dog that wears a sabre and a doliman."
That very day two weddings were celebrated in the farm house, those of Captain Ernest Walstein with the Fraulein Meena Altenburg, and Baron Von Dangerfeld with the yet beautiful and wealthy widow. The captain never tried his luck again at any GAME OF CHANCE.