sort; but they have passed an hour or so together latterly at écarte."
"Ah! I thought so! He must not do so again. Warn him, but do not let him know who told you. Tell him never to play with the Comte again, particularly if I should be present, or else—I cannot say more. Oh, Mary! Mary! do not despise me! I cannot help myself. I have told you much—but, if you knew all!" Shocked as Mrs Lea was, she had sufficient presence of mind to pass unnoticed the scarcely equivocal confession of the gamester's wife, and referring to her last words, replied, "I shall often think of you when absent, Jane, and of what you have told me; but we must never abandon hope, and if the Comte can but obtain his appointment, I don't despair. Idle folks are always getting into mischief. There's my goodman, for instance, because he has nothing to occupy his time here, seems to have taken it into his simple head that he understands écarte, and so must needs try his luck with an experienced player, as I suppose you mean to say the Comte is; so, of course, I shall lecture him on the subject, and really feel greatly obliged to you for your friendly warning."
"Hush!" exclaimed the Comtesse, "that is his voice! He is angry at something, I know by his tone. Let us talk of something else—anything! You said you were going to see the castle at Eberstein, I think. Do seem cheerful!"
There was a scowl on the brow of Comte Henri de Marberg as he opened the door; but it disappeared the moment he beheld his wife's visiter; and during her stay he endeavoured to make himself particularly agreeable—an endeavour in which he was seldom unsuccessful.
"Accept my thanks for your kind attention to my dear Jane," said he, when Mrs Lea was about to take leave; "she is sadly too much alone. I often urge her to mix more in society, particularly as your country families are so many here; but I cannot persuade her as I would, and I fear she is very dull at sometimes, though her amiable disposition is such as she always says it is not so."
Having dismissed their visiter, the Comte strode back to the table, and throwing down a letter, said, in an angry tone,
"There! Read that! It's from your father—a cursed old miser! He refuses a paltry single thousand—curse him! What for do you sit gaping there, like a fool? Can't you take and read?—Eh?" and he threw himself upon a sofa, and, uttering low imprecations, scowled upon his wife as she tremblingly unfolded, and, with tearful eyes, ran over the contents of the letter; and, when she had finished, looked up imploringly, and murmured,
"I am very sorry—but what more can I do, Henri?"
"What more? Why, write again, and again, and again! I will have it. Say as the wine crop is nothing; tell him as some tenant have failed; or as it must come and secure my appointment; or what you like. Bah!"
"But, listen, Henri! How can I say any thing about the appointment, when he insists upon knowing what it is, and you will not tell me?"
"Bah, you fool! You know as I know no more as yourself."
"And then your estate, Henri? This is the third time he has enquired where it is precisely, and I cannot tell him more than it is near the Rhine. He says it may be mortgaged, and money raised so. I don't understand such matters, but"
"Oh, you don't, don't you? But you understand them so well as I understand your fortune being in three per cent instead of sterling, what I expected. You could keep that back to deceive me when you would be Comtesse, and you must do something now."
"Indeed, indeed, Henri, I never meant to deceive you! You know I did not. All that I knew was that my aunt left me"
"Curse your aunt and all the family!"
"Oh, Henri! Could I ever have believed!"
"Well, well, then don't be a fool. Do as I tell you, and write and coax him. Come, come, don't cry like a child—so stupid. I don't mean no harm, only, besides this letter, I am provoked as I lost more than I intended with that lady's husband to-day, because there was somebody looking on as I am afraid knows too much; but I shall get my revenge to-morrow, when he will come here. You see I do all I can, and you must help and do something too."
