“It has been so dreadful!” Olivia said, in a trembling voice. “I thought we must have packed our trunks yesterday, for Mama quarrelled quite shockingly with Aunt Matty—I daresay you might have heard them half a mile away, particularly when my poor aunt fell into strong hysterics. However, it is now made-up between them, only Mama says that I have ruined all my chances, besides having behaved ill from the start, in not making a push to avail myself of all the opportunities that have been put in my way. But, oh, my dear Miss Charing, I did try to do just wha’t she bid me, and I should have been very glad to have caught a rich husband then, for I had not met Camille! Only now it is all changed, and the only hope I have is that I shall go into a decline, and die!”
Slightly startled by this peculiar ambition, Kitty said: “Good God, don’t speak of such a thing! May I talk frankly to you? My cousin disclosed the whole to me, as I daresay he may have told you. You may guess how shocked I am, and how distressed to think that it should have been I who made him known to you! Believe me, had I had the smallest suspicion of the truth, I would never have done so! I have been an ill friend to you, Olivia. I am fully conscious of it!”
“Oh, no, no, never!” Olivia exclaimed. “We loved one another at first sight! Whatever becomes of me, I cannot regret that I have known him! But even hope is denied us: it is useless to suppose that Mama would give her consent, for although Camille’s Papa, you know, is in a very good way of business—he is the proprietor of several gaming establishments in Paris, and all of them of the first style of elegance!— Mama is so determined I should make a grand match that I know it would not do for her. Then, too, how would Camille’s Papa regard it? I have no fortune, and it is precisely that which Camille came to England to seek! Oh, Miss Charing, when I consider that I must be the unwitting cause of perhaps destroying all his chances, I declare I could almost cast myself into the river!”
Kitty had been prepared for reproaches, but scarcely for this. It was a moment before she could collect her wits enough to answer: “But you could not wish to marry one who is—alas!—an impostor? Worse! It pains me to say it, for I too had the greatest kindness for Camille! but I fear, Olivia, he is an adventurer! He has deceived us all I The shock to me has been severe; to you how much more so it must have been!”
“Oh, yes, for I knew on the instant that Mama would dislike it extremely! But he has not deceived me, dear Miss Charing! Nothing could be more noble than his conduct!”
“Olivia!” said Kitty, trying to reassemble her thoughts. “You cannot mean that you would be willing to ally yourself with him!”
“Oh, if it were possible!” sighed Olivia. “I am sure I do not know why a man should not be a gamester, if his talents make it an eligible profession for him! Can it be that you suspect him of employing cheating tricks? I assure you, it is unjust! He says that Greeking methods never answer, and that he never uses them, save in the direst straits! His Papa’s houses are patronized by all the grandest people, and they never use loaded dice, or buy inferior wines! That, Camille says, is a very false economy. Everything should always be of the best, so that one’s clients may be pleased, and come again and again. Of course, it costs a great deal of money at the outset, but the returns are enormous!”
Kitty could think of nothing better to say than: “Are they, indeed?”
“Yes, although there are, as one can readily perceive, great hazards. Only fancy! A run of luck may break the bank at any moment! How exciting it must be! I had previously no notion!”
“No?” said Kitty, quite stunned.