48 THE BOYS’ BROWNING.

Yet indulgent, condescending to the modest juvenile
Who not merely risked, but lost his hard-earned
guineas with a smile.

“Down I sat to cards, one evening,—had for my
antagonist

Somebody whose name’s a secret — you'll know why
— so, if you list,

Call him Cock o’ the Walk, my scarlet son of Mars
from head to heel!

Play commenced: and, whether Cocky fancied that a
clerk must feel

Quite sufficient honour came of bending over one green
baize,

I the scribe with him the warrior, guessed no penman
dared to raise

Shadow of objection should the honour stay but py
ing end

More or less abruptly, — whether disinclined he grew
to spend

Practice strictly scientific on a booby born to stare

At— not ask of — lace-and-ruffles if the hand they
hide plays fair, —

Anyhow, I marked a movement when ‘he bade me
‘Cut!’

“T rose.

‘Such the new manceuvre, Captain? I’m a novice:
knowledge grows.

What, you force a card, you cheat, Sir?’