upon you, gentlemen, to assist me. On two or three Fridays, with the aid of all my friends, I shall be enabled to make a wretched creature very happy."
"The Señora Marquesa already knows," emphasized the curé, "that every copper I win at omber goes to the poor."
"Though there are no poor in Madrid," interrupted Antoñito. "If your reverence wishes to talk crooked, you had better practice it on my landlord, who can lie faster than he can speak."
"Come, come! Coffee is served, gentlemen."
Don Fidel thereupon offering his arm to the marchioness, the company adjourned to the drawing-room, where the coffee was awaiting them.
According to her custom, the marchioness left her guests to themselves for a half hour, in order to let them smoke and chat without restraint. And during that half hour two other friends arrived—Commandant Soles, who informed the company that his last peseta had been won from him at the Casino, and begged not to have the matter mentioned to their hostess, lest she should haul him over the coals; and a poor young man, named Ambrosio, who was a protege of the excellent marchioness, and owned nothing save the short coat on his back and the carnation in his buttonhole. Briefly explained, the foul fiend, who delights in getting things in a tangle, on that particular night so contrived matters that everybody should be asked for money, when nobody had any, although none was willing to acknowledge
