"Never cheated anybody in all my life," he cried; and, observing me at hand, "didn't I play fair, my lord ?" he inquired.

But I made no answer.
Presently some more played, and he permitted one or two to win, and the eagerness to play with him became greater.

After I had looked on for some time, I was moving away: just then I perceived a short, thick personage, with a staff in his hand, advancing in a great hurry; whereupon, with a sudden impulse, I exclaimed-- "Shoon thimble engro; Avella gorgio." The man who was in the midst of his pea-and-thimble process, no sooner heard the last word of the distich, than he turned an alarmed look in the direction of where I stood; then, glancing around, and perceiving the constable, he slipped forthwith his pellet and thimbles into his pocket, and, lifting up his table, he cried to the people about him, "Make way!" and with a motion with his head to me, as if to follow him, he darted off with a swiftness which the short, pursy constable could by no means rival; and whither he went, or what became of him, I know not, inasmuch as I turned away in another direction..