Mr. Pelham, with trembling fingers, opened his pocket-book. His agitation was very great, but I have never been able to decide whether it was by accident or design that he pulled out, with Sydney's I O U's, a number of letters and papers, and with them a photograph. It was a photograph of Grace. We all saw it, and I was not the only one who waited apprehensively for Sydney's next move. He took up the picture; there was writing on the back, which he read. There was breathless silence in the room. For a moment Sydney's eyes rested upon Grace. She smiled wistfully, as a child might smile who had been detected in a trifling fault. Sydney did not respond to her smile. He handed the picture back to Mr. Pelham without a word. Receiving his I O U's he burnt them, one by one, in the flame of a candle, calling out the sums, which two or three of the men pencilled down. "Is that all?" he demanded of Mr. Pelham, as the discomfited gambler paused. "That is all," replied Mr. Pelham. "Your sight or your memory is short," said Sydney. "I am not accounted an expert at figures, but you will find an I O U for three thousand, which you have overlooked. Ah! I was right, I see. You are but a clumsy scoundrel after all." "You shall answer to me for this," said Mr. Pelham, with an attempt at bravado. "I will consider," said Sydney, "whether it is necessary to chastise you. But not to-night, nor in this house. We must not forget that a lady is present." He bowed with exquisite politeness to Grace, and then addressed his friends. "I requested you," he said, "to constitute yourselves a committee of honour, to examine the dice this person used against me. I ask you now to examine the roulette wheel, and to say whether there is any indication that the numbers 5 and 24 have been tampered with." The wheel was examined, and my suspicions were confirmed. Upon the verdict being given, Sydney said, "The person to whom I lost fourteen thousand pounds last night upon number 24 must be accomplished in many ways; for it is only by breaking into the house when its inmates were asleep that he could so skilfully have dealt with the wheel for his own purpose. I cannot congratulate you upon your cousin, Adolph." The lad, with burning blushes, turned his face away, and Sydney, advancing courteously to Grace, offered her his hand. Wondering, and with a look of mingled apprehension and admiration, she placed her hand in his. He led her to Mr. Pelham's side. "I made a bitter mistake," he said to the blackleg. "I believed myself to be the possessor of a jewel to which I had no claim. I resign her; although I believe at this moment"--and here he looked her direct in the face--"that she would follow me, and prove false to you, if I invited her by a word. I withstand the temptation; I will not rob you of her." "Sydney!" cried Grace, holding out her hands to him.