Thus a long time went by, and I found by my watch that it was nearly four o’clock in the morning—­also that I had lost six hundred francs out of the thousand.  It seemed incredible.  I could hardly believe that the time and the money had flown so fast.  I rose in my seat and looked round for Dalrymple; but in vain.  Could he be gone, leaving me here?  Impossible!  Apprehensive of I knew not what, I pushed back my chair, and left the table.  The rooms were now much fuller—­more stars and moustachios; more velvets and laces, and Paris diamonds.  Fresh tables, too, had been opened for lansquenet, baccarat, and ecarte.  At one of these I saw M. de Simoncourt.  When he laid down his cards for the deal, I seized the opportunity to inquire for my friend.

He pointed to a small inner room divided by a rich hanging from the farther end of the salon.

“You will find Major Dalrymple in Madame de Ste. Amaranthe’s boudoir, playing with M. le Vicomte de Caylus,” said he, courteously, and resumed his game.

Playing with De Caylus!  Sitting down amicably with De Caylus!  I could not understand it.

Crowded as the rooms now were, it took me some time to thread my way across, and longer still, when I had done so, to pass the threshold of the boudoir, and obtain sight of the players.  The room was very small, and filled with lookers-on.  At a table under a chandelier sat De Caylus and Dalrymple.  I could not see Dalrymple’s face, for his back was turned towards me; but the Vicomte I recognised at once—­pale, slight, refined, with the old look of dissipation and irritability, and the same restlessness of eye and hand that I had observed on first seeing him.  They were evidently playing high, and each had a pile of notes and gold lying at his left hand.  De Caylus kept nervously crumbling a note in his fingers.  Dalrymple sat motionless as a man of bronze, and, except to throw down a card when it came to his turn, never stirred a finger.  There was, to my thinking, something ominous in his exceeding calmness.

“At what game are they, playing?” I asked a gentleman near whom I was standing.

“At ecarte,” replied he, without removing his eyes from the players.

Knowing nothing of the game, I could only judge of its progress by the faces of those around me.  A breathless silence prevailed, except when some particular subtlety in the play sent a murmur of admiration round the room.  Even this was hushed almost as soon as uttered.  Gradually the interest grew more intense, and the bystanders pressed closer.  De Caylus sighed impatiently, and passed his hand across his brow.  It was his turn to deal.  Dalrymple shuffled the pack.  De Caylus shuffled them after him, and dealt.  The falling of a pin might have been heard in the pause that followed.  They had but five cards each.  Dalrymple played first—­a queen of diamonds.  De Caylus played the king, and both threw down their cards.  A loud murmur broke out instantaneously in every direction, and De Caylus, looking excited and weary, leaned back in his chair, and called for wine.  His expression was so unlike that of a victor that I thought at first he must have lost the game.