"Well! Comte de Marvejols, aren't you going to join us? What the deuce are you doing there, all alone, with your eyes fixed on the sky? are you going into astrology? Beware! you know that a commission is sitting at the Arsenal, in the Poison Chamber, for the express purpose of trying persons accused of magic! And astrologers are very closely related to sorcerers!" "Messieurs," said the Sire de Beausseilly, lowering his voice, "poor Léodgard is in no laughing mood, and you must understand why: he was very unlucky at cards to-night, he lost all that he possessed to Montrevert, and, I believe, a hundred pistoles more on credit." "He is always unlucky with Montrevert, he ought never to play with him; for that charming _petite maison_ where we supped, which is decorated so suggestively, used to belong to Marvejols; he staked it against heaven knows what sum with Montrevert! And now that delicious resort no longer belongs to him! To be sure, Montrevert often invites him there." "If he does it in order to win his money, as he has done to-night, it is not very amusing for Léodgard. I have noticed that fortune has been very adverse to him for some time past. He always loses, poor fellow!" "And I believe he is in debt; he owes everybody!" "Vive Dieu! messieurs, should a man torment himself because he is in debt? As for myself, I have creditors, and plenty of them--I am proud of the fact! But when the knaves have the impudence to ask me for money, then I draw my sword and shout and curse and excite myself to such a frenzy that they run away as if the devil was at their heels! That is the way to arrange one's affairs!" Léodgard had not heard La Valteline's call, for he was still looking at the stars. "Stay, messieurs; I will wager that I will make him come; I know the way.--Holà! Bruno! come here, knave! Have you the dice and diceboxes in your pocket?" "Yes, seigneur." "Give them to me." The valet handed to his master, the Marquis de Sénange, two ivory diceboxes and the dice; the young man placed the dice in one of the boxes and shook them a long while, then began to exclaim: "Seven--eleven--twelve! I have won! I have won!" The rattling of the dice produced the effect which Sénange anticipated: Léodgard, roused from his reverie, left his place and drew near the gentlemen who were seated about the torch. "What, messieurs! are you shaking dice on the grass?" he asked. "Sénange is shaking all by himself at this moment." "I heard him say that he had won." "Pardieu! yes, for I have won; I bet that with my dice I would draw the Comte de Marvejols hither.--Tell me, my masters, did I succeed?--Come, Léodgard, sit down and laugh a bit with us! What is the use of losing your temper with Fortune? What good does it do? She's a woman; what she will not grant to-day, she will grant to-morrow."