76 GAMBLING 



We trudged along without exchanging a word, except, 

 perhaps, as to the name of a coach that might be passing 

 us, till presently in a street leading out of or adjoining 

 St. James's Square, we came to a house with the door 

 wide open, but with an inner door closed, in the upper 

 part of which was a strong light, that enabled a person 

 inside to perceive who was coming. My companion 

 knocked, and the door was partially and cautiously 

 opened. A glance at me and a question to my guide 

 were sufficient ; we Avere admitted, and I began slowly to 

 ascend the stairs. 



I had scarcely time to consider, or ask my conductor 

 the nature of the house to which he had brought me, 

 when at the top we entered — through a pair of folding- 

 doors — a large parlour or saloon, full of well-dressed 

 people, some seated round a large table, others standing, 

 but most, if not all, silently and seriously engaged. In 

 the centre of a table on one side I observed a hoary- 

 headed, venerable-looking gentleman, dealing out a 

 handful of cards, and placing them in two lines before 

 him ; opposite to him sat another with a long staff 

 or rake in his hand, which ever and anon, upon his 

 senior's mutterino- a word or two, he would extend rig'ht 

 and left to gather up the silver and notes (there being but 

 little gold, Peel's Bill not having yet passed) and then 

 distribute to one and the other the amount they had left 

 on the opposite two segments, out of the four, into which 

 the cloth on the table — alternately red and black — was 

 divided. 



I was soon convinced that I was in one of those houses 

 that I had frequently heard and read of in books both of 



