“A good run of luck over there!” cried he, frantically, and pointing to the blaze of lamps which now sparkled through the trees before the Cursaal. “One good night yonder, and Peter Dalton would defy the world. If you 're a lucky hand, Miss Martha, come over and bet for me. I 'll make the bank jump for it before I go to bed! I know the secret of it now. It's changing from color to color ruins everybody. You must be steady to one,--black or red, whichever it is; stick fast to it. You lose two, three, maybe six or seven times running; never mind, go on still. 'T is the same with play as with women, as the old song says,---- If they're coy, and won't hear when you say you adore, Just squeeze them the tighter and press them the more.” “Isn't that it, Mrs. Ricketts? Ah, baithershin! you never knew that song. Miss Martha's blushing; and just for that I 'll back 'red' all the evening; and there's the music beginning already. Here's success to us all! and, faix! it's a pleasant way to deserve it.” Nelly drew near him as they were leaving the room, and, passing her arm fondly about him, whispered a few words in his ear. “And why not this evening?” said he, aloud, and in a rude voice. “Is it Friday, that it ought to bring bad luck? Why should n't I go this evening? I can't hear you; speak louder. Ha! ha! ha! Listen to that, Miss Martha. There's the sensible Nelly for you! She says she had a dhrame about me last night.” “No, dearest papa; but that it was like a dream to me. All the narrative seemed so natural,--all the events followed so regularly, and yet I was awake just as I am now.” [Illustration: 294] “More shame for you, then. We can't help ourselves what nonsense we think in our sleep.” “But you'll not go, dearest papa. You'll indulge me for this once, and I 'll promise never to tease you by such follies again.” “Faix! I'll go, sure enough; and, what's more, I'll win five thousand pounds this night, as sure as my name's Peter. I saw a black cat shaving himself before a new tin saucepan; and if that isn't luck, I'd like to know what is. A black cat won the Curragh Stakes for Tom Molly; and it was an egg saucepan made Dr. Groves gain the twenty thousand pounds in the lottery. And so, now, may I never leave this room if I'd take two thousand pounds down for my chances to-night!”