discovered an infallible system."

"Anything to do with keeping one's temper?"

"It is a system," he said impressively, "which will break any bank."

"Is that all? That is nothing. I met three men at Baden Baden who each professed to know a different but sure method of effecting that desirable feat; but something must have gone wrong with their calculations. To number one I lent a Napoleon to make up his railway fare; number two was escorted to the frontier at the expense of the State; and the third—what did the third do? Let me see—it was something ridiculous, I know. Oh! I remember. When he had lost his last franc he frightened the ladies in the rooms by blowing out his brains! I am disappointed in you, Peter Dodd. I know your sanguine disposition, but I did think you had more sense."

"Then the secrets of the world are all used up, and there is nothing new to be discovered."

"What do you mean, wise Peter?"

[Pg 16]

[Pg 16]

"Be serious if you can; my system has extraordinary advantages, and can be applied with equal s access to any game of chance, be it pitch-and-toss or blind hookey."

"Eureka! That is the correct exclamation, I think. Then we are to have no more flights of uncertain bills, the dread of Monday's settling is about to cease for ever, and I can promise Marie that saddle horse. Permit me, Peter, to congratulate you that you still retain a little of the verdure of your early youth, and believe in something, even if that something is only an infallible system."

"Pooh! so do you, you want to make yourself worse than you are. If anyone dared, for instance, to malign a certain young lady——"

"Stop! what has my confidence in a young lady to do with the question? Young ladies have nothing to do with making money; it is the spending department they know most about. You are endeavouring to shirk the matter, and you are aware that all the arguments in the universe would fail to prove the truth of infallible systems."

"Just so; but you will admit that one system of gambling is better than another, and that it must be greatly to the advantage of the player to reduce the chance in favour of the banker to the 

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