speak, and settled down to the business of his life. In former
days, gambling had been a passion with him--too much so,
indeed, to admit of his playing with any great success; he had
been apt to lose both temper and skill. Time, however, while
increasing this passion for play, till it gradually became a
necessity of his life, had taught him to bring to bear upon it
all the ability which would have eminently fitted him for some
more praiseworthy employment. Formerly he had indulged in it
as a diversion; now it became a serious business, which he
prosecuted with a cool head, determined will, and unfailing
perseverance--qualities for which few would have given him
credit in the wild unsettled period of his early career. The
result was highly satisfactory to himself; he was soon known
as one of the most successful haunters of the German and
Belgian gaming-tables; he cast off the outward aspect and
manners of the Bohemian set he had once affected, and assumed
the guise and dress of the gentleman he really was--at least by
birth and education--and which he found at once more profitable
and more congenial to his maturer tastes. He lived splendidly,
and spent money freely when he had it; incurred debts with
great facility when he had not--debts which he did or did not
pay, as the case might be.

It was during a winter spent at Brussels that he made the
acquaintance of Charles Moore, a young Englishman with tastes
identical with his own, but inferior to him in ability,
talents, and even in principles. A sort of partnership was
formed between them, Mr. Linders undertaking most of the work,
and the Englishman contributing his small fortune as capital;
and not only his own, but that of his sister Magdalen, a young