room with hasty and unequal steps. Melliphant spoke, and Sir Howard stopped abruptly, facing him, to listen to what he had to propose.
"Wealth!" said he, "what is wealth to me? I despise its glittering toys! It never was the object of my pursuit,—nor is it now. It will not purchase me the blissful certainly of being loved by Rosilia! Sir Howard, take the dice again,—let us venture the stake for what to me is of infinitely more value than all the mines of Peru! Let us play for Rosilia! If you win her, I will purchase her of you; I will give you, in exchange for her, all that I have this night won; and should the prize become mine!—if that you will promise me henceforth to renounce all claim to her, and even to lend me your assistance, should I require it, in aiding me to obtain her—if, I say, you will frankly promise this, I will restore to you the half, and more, of what you have just now lost,—reserving to myself that only more immediately necessary to my present emergencies. In a situation so desperate as yours, how can you one moment hesitate? Reflect, Sir Howard; the advantages of fortune are entirely on your side,—in that respect, you cannot be the loser; your gain is certain!"
The early morn was beginning to shed its ray, and ere that period would revolve,—ere another morning dawned and sent its light to re-illumine this world of darkness,—Sir Howard had allowed his ideas to revel in the raptures of carrying off Rosilia,—of bearing her away beyond the utmost stretch of human
