"'I have lost my all,' the Chevalier answered, powerfully constraining himself to be calm. "'Do you mean to say you have nothing left?' the Colonel asked at the next deal. "'I am a beggar,' the Chevalier cried, in a voice quivering with fury and pain, as he continued to stare at the gaming table. He did not notice that those who were staking were getting more and more the better of the banquier. "The Colonel calmly continued the game. "As he shuffled the cards for the third deal, he said to the Chevalier (without looking on him), 'You have a beautiful wife, you know!' "'What do you mean?' cried the Chevalier angrily. The Colonel turned away a little without answering him. "'Ten thousand ducats--or Angela!' he said, half averting his face, as the cards were being cut. "'You are out of your senses!' cried the Chevalier, who had, however, now regained his composure a good deal, and began to observe that the Colonel was losing at every deal. "'Twenty thousand ducats, or Angela!' the Colonel said almost in a whisper, as he paused for a moment during the shuffling of the cards. The Chevalier said not a word. The Colonel played again, and nearly all the cards were in favour of the players--against him. "'Done!' the Chevalier whispered in the Colonel's ear when the next deal began; and he threw the Queen on the table. "The Queen lost. "The Chevalier drew back, grinding his teeth, and leaned at the window with despair and death in his white face. "The game ended, and, with a jeering 'Well! what next?' the Colonel came up to the Chevalier. "'Oh, God!' cried the Chevalier, quite beside himself. 'You have made me a beggar, but you must be a madman if you think you have won my wife! Are we in the West Indies? Is my wife a slave--a chattel in her husband's power, so that he can sell her, or gamble her away at faro? It is true, of course, that you would have had to pay me twenty thousand ducats if the Queen had won, so that I have lost the right to make any objection if my wife chooses to leave me and go away with you. Come home with me, and despair when my wife repulses with horror the man whom she would have to follow as a dishonoured mistress.'