'Which also reminds me that you owe me a good sum of money--cash lent, and lost at play.' 'Why the devil remind me of that just now?' replied, or rather asked, Morganstjern, savagely; and then for a little time the two smoked moodily in silence. The would-be lover of Dolores had long been subjected to a run of evil fortune at the gaming-table. 'So long as there is the beacon of hope,' says a writer, 'life is able to show up a gleam now and then of rose-colour; but when adverse circumstances render any change _impossible_, life becomes intolerable.' And to this verge of desperation had Maurice Morganstjern come. It was a source of keen irritation to him, to find that his rival--favoured by the Countess--could be with Dolores daily, while he--her cousin--could only visit her at stated times; and that all the advances he made to her seemed utterly futile and hopeless now. 'Nearly penniless as I am, Schrekhorn,' said he; 'I might have waited patiently, but have never had a gleam of hope.' 'If you waited a hundred years, it would be all the same, while she is under the influence of this fellow's voice, eye, and society.' 'What would you have me do?' 'Remove him, or remove her!' replied Schrekhorn with a fierce Dutch oath. 'More easily said than done. With her money, by the henckers! how I should enjoy myself all day long and do nothing!' 'About all you ever cared to do,' rejoined his friend, who was rather disposed to treat him mockingly. 'Don't attempt to act my Mentor.' 'Why?' 'Because I should make but a sorry Telemachus.' 'Then it seems all a settled thing between them!' 'What?' 'How dull you are! Marriage?' 'Ach Gott! it looks like it.' 'Then you have been a trifle late of taking the field?' 'Nay,' replied Morganstjern, smoking his meerschaum with vicious energy. 'I was the first, but when this fellow Baronald came, I found myself instantly at a discount.' 'Jilted--eh?' 'Nay, I was never on such a footing with her that she could treat me so, because she was ever utterly indifferent.' 'Then it is too late for fair means now, but not for foul.' Then, after a pause, the Heer said in his mocking tone; 'If money is your object, and you openly avow that it is so, why not propose to the mother, if the daughter won't have you? She is rich enough and certainly handsome enough, and only some fifteen years older than yourself. She is a widow, and all the world knows how easily widows are won. 'Sblood! cut in for her, and leave the girl to the Scot.' Morganstjern thought for a minute, and then uttering one of his imprecations, added: 'No--_no_--NO! I shall be thwarted by no man!' 'Right!' exclaimed the other; 'I like this spirit--give me your hand.' 'This infernal Scots Brigade has married at the Hague and Amsterdam more than fifty Dutch girls within the last few years, and all of them rich.' 'Der Duyvel!' 'Many of them girls of the first rank.' 'Thousand duyvels!' said the Heer with a mocking laugh.