I think that a cool and prudent player can manage both without exposing himself to censure, or deserving to be called a cheat.
During the month that I spent in Corfu, waiting for the arrival of M.
Venier, I did not devote any time to the study, either moral or physical, of the country, for, excepting the days on which I was on duty, I passed my life at the coffee-house, intent upon the game, and sinking, as a matter of course, under the adverse fortune which I braved with obstinacy.

I never won, and I had not the moral strength to stop till all my means were gone.

The only comfort I had, and a sorry one truly, was to hear the banker himself call me--perhaps sarcastically--a fine player, every time I lost a large stake.

My misery was at its height, when new life was infused in me by the booming of the guns fired in honour of the arrival of the bailo.

He was on board the Europa, a frigate of seventy-two guns, and he had taken only eight days to sail from Venice to Corfu.