Taking Olivier to his house, he showed him a pack of cards. 'Now
here is a pack of cards,' he said; 'there seems to be nothing
remarkable about it, does there?' Olivier examined the pack and
declared that the cards did not appear to differ in the least
from all others. 'Well,' said Chauvignac, 'nevertheless they
have been subjected to a preparation called biseautage, or having
one end of the cards made narrower than the other. This
disposition enables us to remove from the pack such and such
cards and then to class them in the necessary order so that they
may get into the hand of the operator.' Chauvignac then
proceeded to apply his precepts by an example, and although the
young man had no particular qualification for the art of
legerdemain, he succeeded at once to admiration in a game at
Ecarte, for he had already mastered the first process of
cheating. Having thus, as he thought, sufficiently compromised
his victim, Chauvignac left him to his temptations, and took
leave of him.

Two days afterwards the professor returned to his pupil and
invited him to accompany him on a pleasure trip. Olivier excused
himself on account of his desperate condition--one of his
creditors being in pursuit of him for a debt of one thousand
francs. 'Is that all?' said Chauvignac; and pulling out his
pocket-book he added,--'Here's a bank-note; you can repay me to-
morrow.' 'Why, man, you are mad!' exclaimed Olivier. 'Be it
so,' said Chauvignac; 'and in my madness I give you credit for
another thousand-franc bank-note to go and get thirty thousand
francs which are waiting for you.' 'Now, do explain yourself,
for you are driving ME mad.' 'Nothing more easy. Here is the
fact,' said Chauvignac. 'M. le Comte de Vandermool, a wealthy