'I hope your Grace has been lucky to-night!' said the Baron one evening,
strolling up to the Duke: 'as for myself, really, if Dice goes on
playing, I shall give up banking. That fellow must have a talisman. I
think he has broken more banks than any man living. The best thing he
did of that kind was the roulette story at Paris. You have heard of
that?'
'Was that Lord Dice?'
'Oh yes! he does everything. He must have cleared his hundred thousand
last year. I have suffered a good deal since I have been in England.
Castlefort has pulled in a great deal of my money. I wonder to whom he
will leave his property?'
'You think him rich?'
'Oh! he will cut up large!' said the Baron, elevating his eyebrows. 'A
pleasant man too! I do not know any man that I would sooner play with
than Castlefort; no one who loses his money with better temper.'
'Or wins it,' said his Grace.
'That we all do,' said the Baron, faintly laughing. 'Your Grace has
lost, and you do not seem particularly dull. You will have your revenge.
Those who lose at first are always the children of fortune. I always
dread a man who loses at first.
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