On The Vagaries Of Chance

At the very same moment that Mr Headstone - for want of a set of keys - was taking a poker to the lock boxes, two gentlemen of his (and the reader's) acquaintance were ascending the stairs to his rooms in the hope of finding the pedagogue 'at home'. Messrs Pyke and Pluck had spent the afternoon at the race-course at Hampton, and, having indulged themselves in sherry cobblers and glasses of champagne at a young lord's expense, had repaired to the rouge-et-noir table where they had lost a great deal of that same lord's ready cash. This service they had performed through an ineffable system of alternating their stakes between the red and the black in direct opposition to the outcome of every roll of the ball, and had done it with a perseverance that would have amazed even Monsieurs de Fermat and Pascal, two French gentleman who had once - like Messrs Pyke and Pluck - shared an interest in games of chance. When there were no more sovereigns to wager, and all the crowns had been raked across the baize by the officer presiding over the entertainment, and the last cigars had been smoked, Messrs Pyke and Pluck took their leave of the young lord - who, by this time, was asleep under a table - and returned to town. Having worked up an appetite by their labours, these two worthy gentlemen were in need of refreshment, and, as it was their custom always to dine at other men's tables rather than their own, they made a resolution to renew their acquaintance with Mr Headstone, and determined to do it at once, it being close to the hour at which the pedagogue was wont to dine.