again--won, doubled his stake--won; then, against D’Almayne’s advice, staked his winnings on “_le rouge_,” and that colour proved successful; and then the gambler-spirit came upon him, and he played with a fierce eagerness, and drank more Champagne, and played again, until two hours later D’Almayne almost forced him away from the table, and took him home, flushed and excited, a winner of one hundred pounds! Poor boy! as he left that haunt of sordid vice and idle folly, he believed that he had done something clever, and spirited, and manly, and longed for the next evening, when he might again distinguish himself; but could he have foreseen half the consequences of this, his first step in evil, or the sorrow he was thereby bringing upon true hearts that loved him, he would have shrunk from again crossing the threshold, as though it were indeed that of the hell which in their unseemly jesting men term it. Rising late the next morning, he was informed that a gentleman was waiting to see him, and on entering the sitting-room, found Horace D’Almayne in an easy-chair and an elegant attitude. “I was anxious about you, _mon cher_” (they had grown wonder fully familiar over their Champagne), “you appeared so much excited last night,” he began, uncrossing his graceful legs, clad in a seraphic pair of _Blin et Fils chef-d’œuvres_. “Sure such a pair were never seen!” “You seemed so carried away by your enthusiasm that I thought you would not sleep, and thus ventured to call at this unreasonable hour to see how you were getting on.” “Very kind and friendly of you, I’m sure,” returned Lord Alfred, quite overcome by such unhoped-for condescension on the part of his model Mentor. “I suppose I did get rather excited, but I’m all right again this morning,--at least I shall be,” he continued, as a dizzy swimming in the head obliged him to grasp a chair-back for support, “as soon as I have had a cup of coffee.” “Or if I might suggest, a bottle of Seltzer-water with a suspicion of Cognac in it, is a much more efficient substitute: allow me to brew for you;--may I ring the bell?”