"The fact is, that I found my winnings rapidly decreasing, so I thought a little interval might very properly elapse; after which fortune again might be on my side. Besides, old boy, you must know that I haven't dined for eight days;—and when I say dined, I don't mean dining in the true sense, but in the common, vulgar, pauper sense of the word. I have made no meal which could represent a dinner. For eight days I haven't touched meat, damn my whiskers! So, being as ravenous as a hyena, I determined that to-day, at least, I would dine."
"And have you?"
"Have I, Cis? Why it's not yet five: do you imagine that under any circumstance I could lower myself so far as to dine at the shopkeeper's hour? No, damn it! one may be hard up, but one does not forget one is a gentleman!"
"Have you ordered your dinner then?"
"More than ordered it—paid for it. I went to the butcher's, and bought two pounds of magnificent steak: this I carried to a small Public, hard by, with the strictest injunctions as to the dressing of it—saw the cook myself, and am satisfied she knows what's what. It is to be ready at half-past six precisely, with no end of fried potatoes, and a bottle of their old crusted, which I know from experience is a wine that a gentleman can drink. The dinner you will say is not epicurean, but at any rate it is certain, because I have paid for it all. Now I don't mind risking the rest of my winnings. My mind is at rest: the baser appetites are provided for."
He began to play also; and he won.
"I told you luck would change," he said.
But he soon lost again, and lost repeatedly.
"Never mind, I have secured a dinner for to-day, which will last a week."
Cecil was equally unfortunate; the run seemed to be decidedly against him.