these matters gave us ample subject for discussion at about eleven o clock it being a fine frosty evening and fit for brisk walking we went out our destination being the private gambling club to which my companion had volunteered to introduce me as a guest it was situated at the end of a mysterious little back street not far from the respectable of pall and was an looking house enough outside but within it was though furnished apparently the premises were presided over by a woman � a woman with painted eyes and hair who received us first of all within the lamp lighted of an drawing room her looks and manner proclaimed her as a of the most pronounced type � one of those pure ladies with a past who are represented as such to the vices of men said something to her apart � whereupon she glanced at me and smiled � then rang the bell a discreet looking man servant in sober black made his appearance and at a slight sign from his mistress who bowed to me as i passed her proceeded to show us upstairs we trod on a carpet of the felt � in fact i noticed that everything was rendered as noiseless as possible in this establishment the very doors being covered with thick and swinging on silent hinges on the upper landing the servant knocked very cautiously at a side door � a key turned in the lock and we were admitted into a long double room very brilliantly lit with electric lamps which at a first glance seemed crowded with men playing at et and some looked up as entered and nodded � others glanced at me but our entrance was otherwise scarcely noticed drawing me along by the arm sat down to watch the play � i followed his example and presently found myself by the intense excitement which the room like the silent of the air before a thunder the sorrows of satan storm i recognised the faces of many well known public men � men eminent in politics and society whom one would never have imagined capable of supporting a gambling club by their presence and authority but i took care to betray no sign of surprise and quietly observed the games and the with almost as a as that of my companion i was prepared to play and to lose � i was not prepared however for the strange scene which was soon to occur and in which i by force of circumstances was compelled to take a leading part x as soon as the immediate game we were watching was finished the players rose and greeted with a good deal of eagerness and i instinctively guessed from their manner that they looked upon him as an influential member of the club a person likely to lend them money to with and otherwise to oblige them in various ways speaking he introduced me to them all and i was not slow to perceive the effect my name had upon most of them i was asked if i would join in a game of and i readily consented the were high but i had no need to for that one of the players near me was a fair haired young man handsome in face and of aristocratic bearing � he had been introduced to me as i noticed him particularly on account of the reckless way he had of his suddenly and apparently out of mere and when he lost as he mostly did he laughed as though he were drunk or on first beginning to play i was entirely indifferent as to the results of the game caring nothing at all as to whether i had losses or gains did not join us but sat apart quietly observant and watching me so i fancied more than anyone and as io the sorrows of satan chance would have it all the luck came my way and i won steadily the more i won the more excited i became till presently my humour changed and i was seized by a desire to lose i suppose it was the touch of some better impulse in my nature that made me wish this for young s sake for he seemed literally by my constant and continued his and desperate play � his young face grew drawn and sharply thin and his eyes glittered with a hungry the other though sharing in his run of ill luck seemed better able to stand it or perhaps they concealed their feelings more cleverly � anyhow i know i caught myself very earnestly wishing that this luck of mine would desert me and set in the young s direction but my wishes were no use � again and again i gathered up the till at last the players rose among them well fm cleaned out he said with a loud forced laugh you must give me my chance of a to morrow mr tempest i bowed with pleasure he called a waiter at the end of the room to bring him a brandy and and meanwhile i was surrounded by the rest of the men all of them repeating the s suggestion of a and urging upon me the necessity of returning to the club the next night in order to give them an opportunity of winning back what they had lost i readily agreed and while we were in the midst of talk suddenly addressed young will you make up another game with me he inquired i ll start the bank with this � and he placed two crisp notes of five hundred pounds each on the table there was a moment s silence the was drinking his brandy and and glanced over the rim of his tall at the notes with eyes � then he shrugged his shoulders indifferently i can t stake any the sorrows of satan thing he said i 