after unheard-of quantities of beer, he could scarcely utter a word,
he was seen absolutely to weep, and, in accents almost
unintelligible, to curse his confounded ill-luck at being deprived,
not of a wife, but of a child: he wanted one so, he said, to
comfort him in his old age.

The time of Mrs. Catherine's couche drew near, arrived, and was gone
through safely. She presented to the world a chopping boy, who
might use, if he liked, the Galgenstein arms with a bar-sinister;
and in her new cares and duties had not so many opportunities as
usual of quarrelling with the Count: who, perhaps, respected her
situation, or, at least, was so properly aware of the necessity of
quiet to her, that he absented himself from home morning, noon, and
night.

The Captain had, it must be confessed, turned these continued
absences to a considerable worldly profit, for he played
incessantly; and, since his first victory over the Warwickshire
Squire, Fortune had been so favourable to him, that he had at
various intervals amassed a sum of nearly a thousand pounds, which
he used to bring home as he won; and which he deposited in a strong
iron chest, cunningly screwed down by himself under his own bed.
This Mrs. Catherine regularly made, and the treasure underneath it
could be no secret to her. However, the noble Count kept the key,
and bound her by many solemn oaths (that he discharged at her
himself) not to reveal to any other person the existence of the
chest and its contents.

But it is not in a woman's nature to keep such secrets; and the
Captain, who left her for days and days, did not reflect that she