“All lotteries,” said I, “are advantageous to the holders, but the king is at the head of the Government lottery, and I am the principal receiver, in which character I shall proceed to confiscate this casket, and give you the choice of the following alternatives:  You can, if you like, return to the persons present the money you have unlawfully won from them, whereupon I will let you go with your box.  If you refuse to do so, I shall send for a policeman, who will take you to prison, and to-morrow you will be tried by M. Berier, to whom I shall take this book in the morning.  We shall soon see whether we are rogues as well as they.”

Seeing that they had to do with a man of determination, and that resistance would only result in their losing all, they resolved with as good a grace as they could muster to return all their winnings, and for all I know double the sum, for they were forced to return forty louis, though they swore they had only won twenty.  The company was too select for me to venture to decide between them.  In point of fact I was rather inclined to believe the rascals, but I was angry with them, and I wanted them to pay a good price for having made a comparison, quite right in the main, but odious to me in the extreme.  The same reason, doubtless, prevented me from giving them back their book, which I had no earthly right to keep, and which they asked me in vain to return to them.  My firmness and my threats, and perhaps also the fear of the police, made them think themselves lucky to get off with their jewel-box.  As soon as they were gone the ladies, like the kindly creatures they were, began to pity them.  “You might have given them back their book,” they said to me.

“And you, ladies, might have let them keep their money.”

“But they cheated us of it.”

“Did they?  Well, their cheating was done with the book, and I have done them a kindness by taking it from them.”

They felt the force of my remarks, and the conversation took another turn.

Early next morning the two gamesters paid me a visit bringing with them as a bribe a beautiful casket containing twenty-four lovely pieces of Dresden china.  I found this argument irresistible, and I felt obliged to return them the book, threatening them at the same time with imprisonment if they dared to carry on their business in Paris for the future.  They promised me to abstain from doing so—­no doubt with a mental reservation, but I cared nothing about that.

I resolved to offer this beautiful gift to Mdlle. de la Meure, and I took it to her the same day.  I had a hearty welcome, and the aunt loaded me with thanks.