his own sake, from making any painful disclosures to her husband; and
the daily and hourly expiation brought no peace with it; for she
remained in her deceiver's power.

Three years went by. The elderly adventurer then fell in with a young,
wealthy, and inexperienced man, who had loved the same woman, and whose
honourable addresses had been declined for his sake; and he acquired
over this youth an influence almost as strong as that which he had
exercised over the young girl. He found him grieving over his
disappointment, and undertook to teach him how to forget it; became his
master in the art of dissipation; helped to empty his pockets while he
filled his own; and finally induced him to form a mercenary engagement
to a cousin whom he did not love. When the story opens, the young man
has come to visit his bride-elect in her country home; and his
Mephistopheles has followed him, under a transparent pretext, to secure
a last chance of winning money from him at cards. The presence of the
latter is to be a secret, because he is too ill-famed a personage to be
admitted into the lady's house; so they have arrived on the eve of the
appointed day, and put up at a village inn on the outskirts of the
cousin's estate. There they have spent the night in play. There also the
luck has turned; and the usual winner has lost ten thousand pounds. His
friend insists on cancelling the debt. He affects to scout the idea.
"The money shall, by some means or other, be paid."

The discussion is renewed with the same result, as they loiter near the
station, at which the younger will presently make a feint of arriving;
and for the first time he asks the elder why, with such abilities as
his, he has made no mark in life. The latter replies that he found and
lost his opportunity four years ago, in a woman, who, he feels more and
more, would have quickened his energies to better ends. He then, with