Lights were brought, and then more red tent and macaroon biscuits, for the hour was growing late; still the protracted game went on, and if I regained a dollar I always lost it again; for between the attention I bestowed on the bright smiles and jewelled fingers of Prudentia, and my own intense desire to please, I was a very bad pupil and worse gambler. The moments glided away, and so did my dollars. At last Prudentia clapped her hands, and laughed loudly as she threw down all her cards. She had made me bankrupt! "Oh foolish señor! O bravo! Que fortuna!" she exclaimed; "how ill you have played! You must beware of sharpers and knights of the post. Ay de mi! You are much too guileless for this bad world. Ah! if I had the making of it, how much better it should have done." "Better?" said I, thinking of my dollars and doubloons. "Yes, señor, for I would have left all the evil out of it." "How innocent this creature is!" thought I; "and how sad it is, that she is committed to a career of such perils as the stage!" "Now, to punish you," said she, sweeping all my cash into the pocket of her Spanish _guardain fante_, "I shall keep your purse till to-morrow, for really I do not think you know how to take care of your money." "While playing, in my desire to please I did but confuse myself; yet I am sure Prudentia will pardon me--a first love will make the boldest heart timid." "This is all very pretty," she replied, smoothing back her jetty hair, and displaying the exquisite contour of her white arms; "but lovers are so faithless!----" "A real passion has no end but death. While one is a lover one will be true, for love retires where falsehood enters." Her free manner had infected me. "Really," replied Prudentia, with one of her droll expressions of eye, "for a young student and soldier, you are wonderful. I begin to be quite charmed with you." "Nay, I fear you but jest," said I, taking her right hand in mine, and passing the other over her rich dark hair; "'tis I who am charmed. Oh, Prudentia, you are indeed beautiful!" "Stuff, señor?" She gave another of her merry ringing laughs. I sighed; but, while she continued to smile, my heart beat quicker, and my head became giddy with wine, and the thoughts that whirled through it. I sat with one arm clasping her waist. We were both silent, but a deep crimson began to steal over the peach-like cheek of Prudentia. "Que hora es!" said she suddenly, as a clock struck. "Eleven!" said I. "Eleven! oh señor Don Philip, you must go. What would be thought of me, if you were known to be in my room at eleven in the night?" "The time has flown so quick," said I, rising with reluctance. "But, señor, you must go--it is so late." "And we have been so happy--but there is no remedy." I could have slept very well in my plaid on the little sofa, or even on the mat at her door (for I was bewitched), but I dared not hint that, and took up my sword and bonnet to retire.