About Betting and Gamhling. 95 



real pitch and toss means playing quoits with pennies, and 

 the one who is nearest to the cork tosses all the coppers up 

 and pockets all the heads ; the next nearest goes on with the 

 remaining coppers, and so each in turn until all the half- 

 pence originally cast turn up heads. In short, we set to 

 work amidst much fun and laughter, and a Frenchman, 

 with his hair cut like a clothes-brush, to whom the game 

 was new, joined us, and a millionake ironmaster, who had 

 come about a railway contract. Our merriment attracted 

 some of the ladies who looked on half in diffidence, and 

 eventually got easy-chairs and sate by. At luncheon the 

 Frenchman was very enthusiastic for " Encore de peetch and 

 toss Anglais;' and to it we went again, and some of the 

 ladies joined. All the waiters looked on, the cook came 

 from the kitchen, and the laundresses too. It was gi^eat 

 fun, and we had a long argument about a fair or unfan- 

 pitch of the ironmaster. I was out of the game pro tern., 

 and it was referred to me, and I gave it against him. The 

 next morning all the party were scattered to the four winds 

 of Heaven, never to meet again— bar two- and the French- 

 man took a touching fareweU of me. In the winter of '66 

 I was in Lombard-street, and met someone I thought I 

 knew, and I puUed up, and so did he, and we shook hands : 

 it was the ironmaster, and we had a hearty laugh. '' And 

 how did you get through the panic? " I asked— for there 

 had been a tremendous panic. " Oh, all right," he said ; 

 .'but the ship nearly grounded." And as we parted and 

 shook hands again he called me back and said, " You were 

 ^^-rong about that penny when you gave it against me— it 

 was a fair tail as it fell." So, in spite of intervening 

 trouble and care, that game of pitch and toss left a sunny 

 spot on the ironmaster's memory, as it has on mine. 



