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And the others were put up by Metelill to serve as prizes in the 'racing game, which some one had routed out, left behind in the lodging, and which was now spread on the dining-table, with all the young people playing in high glee, and with immense noise. "Betting too!" said Jane in horror. "Mr. Elwood betted three chocolate creams upon Charley, and Pica took it! Father! Come and call Meg away."
That very evening the resolute old gentleman, leaning on his nephew's arm, made his appearance in the halls of the Kursaal, and lost or won a napoleon or two at the table of 'Trente-et-quarante. He did not play to lose, he said, or to win, but he did as other folks did, and betted his napoleon and took his luck as it came.
The gallant young fellows treated the company round to champagne at the table d'hote, rode out with the women, or hired horses on country excursions, clubbed money to take boxes at the play or the opera, betted over the fair shoulders of the ladies at the ecarte tables, and wrote home to their parents in Devonshire about their felicitous introduction to foreign society.
"Sir, when I saw you, I was near making the same mistake; I would have betted you were Italian." Another time, I was dining at Lady Lambert's in numerous and brilliant company. Someone remarked on my finger a cornelian ring on which was engraved very beautifully the head of Louis XV. My ring went round the table, and everybody thought that the likeness was striking.
'Let somebody else do it, I said. 'I'm tired. I'll introduce you to some friends of mine. So I took him off, and whisked him on to some girls I knew at one of the tables. 'Shake hands with my friend Mr Ferris, I said. 'He wants to show you the latest steps. He does most of them on your feet. I could have betted on Charlie, the Debonair Pride of Ashley. Guess what he said?
It was necessary to the success and even to the safety of the highwayman that he should be a bold and skilful rider, and that his manners and appearance should be such as suited the master of a fine horse. He therefore held an aristocratical position in the community of thieves, appeared at fashionable coffee houses and gaming houses, and betted with men of quality on the race ground.
Luttridge's prognostics had vainly taught him to expect: he played on, however, with all the impetuosity of his natural temper; his judgment forsook him; he scarcely knew what he said or did; and, in the course of a few hours, he was worked up to such a pitch of insanity, that in one desperate moment he betted nearly all that he was worth in the world and lost!
Yet the inexorable bookmaker kept on steadily taking the odds; the more he betted, the more money was piled on to the unbeaten horse, and yet few took warning, although they must have seen that the audacious financier was taking on himself an appalling risk.
However, he reached its end cheery in the belief that the sun of Tuesday would light no Waterloo. "I'll win," he said to Bowers. "By no walkover, I admit; but I'll win." "M-yes; I guess, but by the narrowest margin the Demijohn ever gave. The slightest flurry might snow us under." "I'd stake my head on it." "Some who have betted less than that have hedged."
"Come," said Percy, "we haven't betted to-day. I'll bet you she will, if you like. Will you bet against it?" "I won't. I can't nibble at anything. Betting's like drinking." "But you can take a glass of wine. This sort of bet is much the same. However, don't; for you would lose."
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