“How many?” asked the dealer.

“I will take one card, if you please,” he said, throwing away the ace.

He glanced at the card, as he put it into his hand:  it was a king; he had a straight.  Then he watched what the others were taking.  The player on his left also asked for one—­a doubtful intimation.  His next neighbor asked for two—­probably he had three of a kind.  The dealer threw up his cards.  The age had already taken three—­no doubt he had started with the common or garden pair.

It was Lionel’s turn to bet.

“Well,” said he, “I will just go five shillings on this little lot.”

“I will see your five shillings and go a sovereign better,” said his neighbor.

“That’s twenty-five shillings for me to come in,” said he who had taken two cards.  “Well, I’ll raise you another sovereign.”

The age went out.

“Two sovereigns against me,” said Lionel “Very well, then, I’ll just raise you another.”

“And another.”

This frightened the third player, who incontinently retired.  There were now left in only Lionel and his antagonist, and each had drawn but one card.  Now the guessing came in.  Had the player been drawing to two pairs, or to fill a flush or a straight; had he got a full hand; or was he left with his two pairs; or, again, had he failed to fill, and was he betting on a perfectly worthless lot?  At all events the two combatants kept hammering away at each other, until there was a goodly pile of gold on the table, and the interest of the silent onlookers was proportionately increased.  Were both bluffing and each afraid to call the other?  Or was it that cruel and horrible combination—­a full hand betting against four of a kind?

“I call you,” said Lionel’s enemy, at length, as he put down the last sovereign he had on the table.

“A straight,” was Lionel’s answer, as he showed his cards.

“Not good enough, my boy,” said the other, as he calmly ranged a flush of diamonds before him.

“Take away the money, Johnny,” said Lionel, as if it were a matter of no moment.  “Or wait a second; I’ll go you double or quits.”

But here there was an almost general protest.

“Oh, what’s the use of that, Moore?  It was the duke who brought that nonsense in, and it ought to be stopped; it spoils the game.  Stick to the legitimate thing.  When you once begin that stupidity, there’s no stopping it.”

However, the player whom Lionel had challenged had no mind to deny him.

“For the whole pot, or for what you put in?” he asked.

“Either—­whichever you like,” Lionel said, carelessly.

“We’ll say the whole pot, then:  either I give you what’s on the table, or you double it,” the lucky young gentleman made answer, as he proceeded to count the sovereigns and chips—­there was L28 in all.  “Will you call to me?  Very well.  What do you say this is?”—­spinning a sovereign.