In a moment of tenderness, this couple paired off, and were immediately succeeded by another.

The first tones of the man's voice, low as they were, made me start from my seat.
I cast one quick glance before I resumed it.

The new pair were the Englishman I had before noted in the garden, and the female companion who had joined him.
"Two hundred pounds, you say ?" muttered the man; "we must have it all." "But," said the woman, in the same whispered voice, "he says, that he will never touch another card." The man laughed.

"Fool," said he, "the passions are not so easily quelled--how many days is it since he had this remittance from England ?" "About three," replied the woman.
"And it is absolutely the very last remnant of his property ?" "The last." "I am then to understand, that when this is spent there is nothing between him and beggary ?" "Nothing," said the woman, with a half sigh.
The man laughed again, and then rejoined in an altered tone, "Then, then will this parching thirst be quenched at last.

I tell you, woman, that it is many months since I have known a day--night--hour, in which my life has been as the life of other men.