"How weak and childish you are!--Here, come into this café with me, and you shall see how easily these things are done.
"You see yonder big Benoit, with his small annuity. I am going to propose a game of piquet to him, and make him pay for a cup of coffee for each of us. 'Tis a pity he has not more to lose."
Benoit is accosted by these gentlemen. The game and the stake are accepted: the result is not long delayed. In two hands the game was over. Chauvignac and his friend left the café, and once in the street, the former put the finishing stroke to his unworthy maxims.
"There, it is not difficult, you observe," said he. "Oh! how delightful it is to be able to wrestle with fate, by fleecing a set of simpletons, whom that capricious Dame Fortune loves so often to favour."
"Does it take long to learn?" said Olivier, quite bewildered with all he had seen and heard.
"That depends upon circumstances," replied his perfidious friend; "it is with this art, as with the piano, one can soon give pleasure; it depends on the professor, and his method of teaching.
"But, as we are not far from where I live, come in; and whilst we smoke a cigar together, I'll explain a few things to you."
Olivier still rather hesitated to follow him.
"Oh! nonsense! it binds you to nothing; you can do just as you please. It is as well to know a little of everything, and at all events, if you do not like to practise the system yourself, it will put you on your guard when attacked. One never knows what may happen."
Chauvignac would certainly not have taken so much trouble about the matter, if he had not had in view some act of treachery towards his companion. The conversation ended by Olivier accepting the offer held out to him.
Behold them now, seated on a sofa, each with a cigar in his mouth, and Chauvignac with a pack of cards in his hand.
"Look! here is a hand, tell me if you see any signs of cheating in any of the cards?"
The novice examined the cards with great attention, but not being an adept in the art, failed to discover anything.
"You observe nothing in this hand of cards?" said Chauvignac. "They have, however, been subjected to a process that we call biseautage,[H] or having one end made narrower than the other. This system shows the player what cards he is to retain, and how to class them, in the order he requires for playing."