Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/390

 took him at his word, and slipped into his pocket twenty golden louis to lead him to the pharo bank. Menars played and won a thousand golden louis without study, and without combination of the cards. He played blind man's buff with fortune; she allowed herself to be caught with exceeding good will.

When the chevalier awoke, the morning after this feverish night, in his own room, his first glance fell upon the piles of louis ranged with care upon his dressing table. He thought at first that he was dreaming; he stretched out his arm to draw the table nearer; then his hand caressed the seductive little pieces which shone coquettishly in the first rays of the rising sun.—The sensation that he then felt decided the course of his life. The poison of avarice penetrated his veins: Menars became suddenly an unbridled gamester, and waited with gnawing impatience the hour for the opening of the gambling houses every evening. Luck was faithful to him, and in a few weeks he had won enormous sums. From this time the chevalier thought no one worthy of risking a few ducats against his heaps of gold. He wanted a broader stage of action; he opened a bank, which became in a short time the richest in Paris. The gamesters flocked to it, and the fortune of Menars took up its abode there. But the gambler's irregular life wore away day by day the heart and soul of the poor man. And there soon remained in him but little of the gentleman; he was now nothing more than a sordid, avaricious gambler. It happened one night that his luck began to turn against him. A little dried up old man, badly dressed, approached the green table, and timidly threw down on a card a well worn louis.—He lost, made his bet again, and lost again; it lasted thus for some time, until the old man, who, in spite of his losses, always doubled his bets, finally lost at a single deal five hundred golden louis.

"Good God! Signor Vertua," exclaimed one of the players; "go on, I beg of you; for, at the game you are playing so well, a chance will come for you, you will break the bank!"

The old man threw a wild look at the man who spoke thus,