And fortune must have been very favourable to the husband of Miss Higg
that night; for in the course of an hour he insisted on paying back
Clive's loan; and two days afterwards appeared with his shirt-studs (of
course with his shirts also), released from captivity, his watch, rings,
and chains, on the parade; and was observed to wear his celebrated fur
pelisse as he drove back in a britzska from Strasbourg. "As for myself,"
wrote Clive, "I put back into my purse the five Napoleons with which I
had begun; and laid down the whole mass of winnings on the table, where
it was doubled and then quadrupled, and then swept up by the croupiers,
greatly to my ease of mind. And then Lord Kew asked me to supper and we
had a merry night."
This was Mr. Clive's first and last appearance as a gambler. J. J. looked
very grave when he heard of these transactions. Clive's French friend did
not please his English companion at all, nor the friends of Clive's
French friend, the Russians, the Spaniards, the Italians, of sounding
titles and glittering decorations, and the ladies who belonged to their
society.
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