"Par la mordioux! are you afraid of compromising yourself by playing with me, my friend? You do not know me, evidently! Very well! learn that I am Chevalier Castor Pyrrhus de Passedix, the favorite of Monseigneur le Cardinal de Richelieu, and an officer in the queen's _Mousquetaires_!--Say--are you satisfied now?--In a moment, Poussinet--don't go. Let us settle this business, and don't put your nose so near the omelet!" The two tradesmen had glanced at each other with a sneering expression while the Gascon chevalier enumerated his name and offices, and they whispered to each other: "The cardinal's favorite, forsooth! Just look at his doublet; there's a hole in the elbow, and his ruff is all ragged!" "He is some schemer, some scurvy knave! Shall I play with him?" "Yes; it would be a good job to win his rose crown." "But, if he loses, by Notre-Dame! he will have to pay! I will not be put off with his bluster!" "Well! what about that rubber! Capédébious! shall we finish to-night?" cried Passedix, assuming a surly air and bringing his fist down on the table. "I am ready, monsieur le favori du cardinal. But you will not ask me for your revenge again. I declare now that I will not throw after this." "All right! that is understood. Who the devil asks you to?" "There are the dice, monsieur; will you begin?" "I have no objection." Passedix put the three dice in the box that he held; this time, despite his efforts, one could see that his hand trembled and that he did not raise the box with the same confidence. However, the dice were thrown, and again the sum was fourteen. Passedix jumped for joy, so that he nearly overturned the table; he breathed like a man who had been stifling for five minutes, then burst out in a roar of laughter that extinguished one of the lamps. His demonstration ended with the words: "I think that you have lost, my boy! You will pay for our supper." "But I believe that I am entitled to take my throw first." "Oh! that is true; take your throw, it's your right; but if I were in your place, I would give it up and pay at once." "No, indeed! Fortune is like the sun; it shines for everybody!" "There's a proverb that I never heard! I believe it to be absolutely false!" However, the chevalier's adversary calmly took up the dice, shook them with the air of a man to whom it matters little whether he loses a rose crown, but who is amused by the impatience of his opponent. "Sandis! have you nearly finished shaking your dicebox?" said Passedix; "you trifle too much." The shopkeeper threw--fifteen! It was his turn to laugh, which he did with a good heart, in company with his friend, who cried: "Pardieu! there's a throw that's worth all of yours, monsieur le cardinal's friend!" But Passedix did not seem to hear these words; he was so thunderstruck when he counted his opponent's points, that he stood like one turned to stone, with his eyes fixed on the six, the five, and the four.