matters and in regard to some persons, was not so completely under the
influence of that imaginative infirmity as to take the creature before
him for a sibyl. "Get away; you turn my stomach. Your cards smell; so
do you!"

"Forgive her, worthy sir," said the man, leaning forward. "The hag may
be unsavoury, but she is wise. The Three Sisters who accosted the
Scottish Thane, sir (Macbeth--you have seen it on the stage?) were not
savoury. Withered, and wild in their attire, sir, but they knew a thing
or two! She sees luck in your face. Cross her hand and give it vent!"

"Fiddledee," said the irreverent Losely. "Take her off, or I shall scald
her," and he seized the kettle.

The hag retreated grumbling; and Losely, soon despatching his meal,
placed his feet 'on the hobs, and began to meditate what course to adopt
for a temporary subsistence. He had broken into the last pound left of
the money which he had extracted from Mrs. Crane's purse some days
before. He recoiled with terror from the thought of returning to town
and placing himself at her mercy. Yet what option had he? While thus
musing, he turned impatiently round, and saw that the shabby man and the
dusty hag were engaged in an amicable game of ecarte, with those very
cards which had so offended his olfactory organs. At that sight the old
instinct of the gambler struggled back; and, raising himself up, he
looked over the cards of the players. The miserable wretches were, of
course, playing for nothing; and Losely saw at a glance that the man was,
nevertheless, trying to cheat the woman! Positively he took that man
into more respect; and that man, noticing the interest with which Losely
surveyed the game, looked up, and said: