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I sat down much amused at my friend's earnestness and excitement, and waited patiently the end of the experiments. He was soon satisfied, and, starting up, exclaimed—

"Perfect, and a marvel of simplicity!"

"Not hereditary in the family, I hope?" I asked. "When the attack is on you, you don't fly at your best friends?"

"Yes, I bite them! While you have been gadding about town, doing no good, here have I been making my hair turn grey by testing the various chances at roulette."

"Might I suggest," I said, "that you should vary the monotony of the roulette—toujours des perdrix—with a little solitaire. I can recommend that as a lively game."

"Go to Jericho!" he rather impolitely answered. "I am the working bee; you are the drone. While you were whispering absurdities into the ear of Marie I have discovered an infallible system."

"Anything to do with keeping one's temper?"

"It is a system," he said impressively, "which will break any bank."

"Is that all? That is nothing. I met three men at Baden Baden who each professed to know a different but sure method of effecting that desirable feat; but something must have gone wrong with their calculations. To number one I lent a Napoleon to make up his railway fare; number two was escorted to the frontier at the expense of the State; and the third—what did the third do? Let me see—it was something ridiculous, I know. Oh! I remember. When he had lost his last franc he frightened the ladies in the rooms by blowing out his brains! I am disappointed in you, Peter Dodd. I know your sanguine disposition, but I did think you had more sense."