Late hours and dissipated habits, though kept within respectable limits, left their traces on his face.

At twenty-one he inherited a considerable fortune, which, combined with some professional income--for he was a lawyer, and not without ability--was quite sufficient to support him handsomely, and leave a considerable surplus every year.

But latterly he had contracted a passion for gaming, and, shrewd though he might be naturally, he could hardly be expected to prove a match for the wily _habitues_ of the gaming table, who had marked him for their prey.
The evening before his introduction to the reader he had passed till a late hour at a fashionable gaming house, where he had lost heavily.
His reflections on waking were not the most pleasant.

For the first time within fifteen years he realized the folly and imprudence of the course he had pursued.

The evening previous he had lost a thousand dollars, for which he had given his IOU.