last hope hung on the result, and the other feeling conscious of entering
on a most ungracious duty,--now separated, and mingled with the gay throng,
who, swaying hither and thither, and, seemingly without end or aim, moving
round and round their limited range of apartments, like the froth in the
circling eddies of a whirlpool, continued to laugh, flirt, and chatter on,
till the advent of the last act of the social farce,--the throwing open of
a suit of hitherto sealed apartments, and the welcome disclosure of the
varied and costly delicacies of the loaded refreshment tables, which the
company, by their strong and simultaneous rush thitherward, the rattling of
knives and forks, spoons and glasses, the rapid popping of champagne corks,
and the low, eager hum of gratified voices that followed, evidently deemed
the best, as well as the closing, act of the evening's entertainment.

While this scene was in progress, Gaut Gurley, who had been for some time
in vain watching the opportunity, caught Mark Elwood unoccupied in one of
the vacated apartments, and abruptly approached and confronted him.

"Well, what now, Gaut?" exclaimed Elwood, with an assumed air of
pettishness, after finding there was no further chance of escaping an
interview which he had evidently been trying to avoid; "what would you have
now?"

"I would just know whether you intend to keep your engagement," replied
Gurley, fixing his black, quivering eyes keenly on the other.

"What engagement?"

"To give me a chance to win back that money."

"Which you demand when you have taken from me an hundred to one!"