"I do not doubt it, my dear fellow,--I do not in the least doubt it. But a simple 'gentleman' is a long way below--or above--an Earl. Have it which side you choose!--because it really doesn't matter nowadays. We have come to a period of history when rank and lineage count as nothing at all, owing to the profoundly obtuse stupidity of those who happen to possess it. So it chances, that as no resistance is made, brewers are created peers of the realm, and ordinary tradesmen are knighted, and the very old families are so poor that they have to sell their estates and jewels to the highest bidder, who is frequently a vulgar 'railway-king' or the introducer of some new manure. You occupy a better position than such, since you inherit your money with the farther satisfaction that you do not know how it was made." "True!" I answered meditatively,--then, with a sudden flash of recollection I added--"By the way I never told you that my deceased relative imagined that he had sold his soul to the devil, and that this vast fortune of his was the material result!" Lucio burst into a violent fit of laughter. "No! Not possible!" he exclaimed derisively--"What an idea! I suppose he had a screw loose somewhere! Imagine any sane man believing in a devil! Ha, ha, ha! And in these advanced days too! Well, well! The folly of human imaginations will never end! Here we are!"--and he sprang lightly out as the brougham stopped at the Grand Hotel--"I will say good-night to you, Tempest. I've promised to go and have a gamble." "A gamble? Where?" "At one of the select private clubs. There are any amount of them in this eminently moral metropolis--no occasion to go to Monte Carlo! Will you come?" I hesitated. The fair face of Lady Sibyl haunted my mind,--and I felt, with a no doubt foolish sentimentality, that I would rather keep my thoughts of her sacred, and unpolluted by contact with things of lower tone. "Not to-night;"--I said,--then half smiling, I added--"It must be rather a one-sided affair for other men to gamble with you, Lucio! You can afford to lose,--and perhaps they can't." "If they can't, they shouldn't play,"--he answered--"A man should at least know his own mind and his own capacity; if he doesn't, he is no man at all. As far as I have learned by long experience, those who gamble like it, and when _they_ like it, _I_ like it. I'll take you with me to-morrow if you care to see the fun,--one or two very eminent men are members of the club, though of course they wouldn't have it known for worlds. You shan't lose much--I'll see to that." "All right,--to-morrow it shall be!"--I responded, for I did not wish to appear as though I grudged losing a few pounds at play--"But to-night I think I'll write some letters before going to bed." "Yes--and dream of Lady Sibyl!" said Lucio laughing--"If she fascinates you as much when you see her again on Thursday you had better begin the siege!"