The gentlemen, or one among them, I knew not who, offered this evening a general tea-drinking with the music. It was served under the trees upon the open walk, and was very gay and merry. After the tea, when the day began to decline, we went to the rooms where, though there was no dancing, there was talking and laughing, in one room, and in the other games of cards of every kind--cribbage, whist, quadrille, hazard, and lansquenet. We wandered round the tables, watching the players intent upon the chances of the cards. I thought of poor Sir Miles Lackington, who might, had it not been for his love of gaming, have been now, as he began, a country gentleman with a fine estate. In this room we found Lord Chudleigh. He was not playing, but was looking on at a table where sat a young gentleman and an officer in the army. He did not see us, and, under pretence of watching the play of a party of four ladies playing quadrille, one of whom was Lady Levett, I sat down to watch him. Was he a gambler? I presently discovered that he was not looking at the game, but the players. Presently he laid his hand upon the shoulder of the younger man, and said, in a quiet voice-- "Now, Eardesley, you have had enough. This gentleman knows the game better than you." "I hope, my lord," cried the other player, springing to his feet, "that your lordship doth not insinuate----" "I speak what I mean, sir. Lord Eardesley will, if he takes my advice, play no more with you." "Your lordship," cried the gentleman in scarlet, "will perhaps remember that you are speaking to a gentleman----" "Who left Bath, a fortnight ago, under such circumstances as makes it the more necessary for me to warn my friend. No, sir,"--his eye grew hard, and his face stern. "No, sir. Do not bluster or threaten. I will neither play with you, nor suffer my friends to play with you; nor, sir, will I fight with you, unless you happen to attack me upon the road. And, sir, if I see you here to-morrow, the master of the ceremonies will put you to the door by means of his lackeys. Come, Eardesley." The gamester, thus roundly accused, began to bluster. His honour was at stake; he had been grossly insulted; he would have the satisfaction of a gentleman; he would let his lordship know that his rank should not protect him. With these noble sentiments, he left the room, and the Wells saw him no more. Then, seeing me alone, for I had escaped from my court, being weary of compliments and speeches, he came to my chair. "I saw you, my lord," I said, "rescue that young gentleman from the man who, I suppose, would have won his money. Is it prudent to engage in such quarrels?" "The young gentleman," he replied, "is, in a sense, my ward. The man is a notorious sharper, who hath been lately expelled from Bath, and will now, I think, find it prudent to leave the Wells. I hope, Miss Kitty, that you do not like gaming?"