THE HOUSE OF CARDS

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 334, 22 October 1908, Page 3

THE HOUSE OF CARDS

' It was in a ]ittle qnay-side cafe in a Basque town that'l saw him, 'a town where the green-shuttered windows, suggestive of cool, uarke'ned rooms .within, look out. on streets that/.are narrow,' 'twisted, -'and liripaved, and the twin 'towers of the old cathedral frown from ,the height upon the massive gateway, much as they did when the Black' Prince passed'in triumph under the portcullis. Inside the cafe four, old fishermen were solemnly Binging snatches from grand opera in perfect harmony, stopping, occasionally; to sip their tall' glasses of red wine, and Pierre, the landlord, was dozing oyer a copy of the "Petit, Gironde" by the .fire. . Marie, his daughterMarie of ;.the wide grey eyes and . ready smile —was burnishing until they shone again the tankards and glasses that lined the panelled walls, but every now and then she cast a glance of mingled anxiety and encouragement in the direction of the young man at the corner, table. ' He was little more than a boy, pale and slim, with curly hair, a low collar, and a full, carelessly-knotted'tie; and he was' building card castles'as J tliough"his life depended upon it.' Six stories, seven stories they would rise} "and then a tremor of his hand, or a. shake of the table""from an _ oxwaggon lumbering by would bring his edifice to the ground; and'with a muttered "Peste " he would begin again,-patiently but eagerly, to fashion, the bottom flat of, his interminable chateau., At: first, I thought'him harmlessly •deranged, but whenJ noticed the ill-concealed interest!;with.which Marie watched each flimsy (Structure rise, arid the disappointment with which she viewed each collapse, I came to think that there must, be. some romantic reason . for the quaint occupation of the Byronic stranger. • It was from one of the fishermen that I karnedjthe truth. Marie, who would brook no advance on friendship from any man, had given her affections at last to this fascinating boy. from the north, and alh had seemed to be well. .;But .one evening .she had caught him .playing cards for money in her father's cafe. ..-.ln- this.-way her -brother had been ruined and her father's resources well-nigh exhausted. -• She would marry no man who had the'gambler's instinct, and though he pleaded for" pardon and swore amendment sho would not"listen, "Ah 1 if only she could' Revise some means to ;make-him hate the sight of cards — and' then-it was that the ordeal occurred to her, whose quaint progress I . had seen. Lot him build-her a^,castle of tw9 packs of cards and : she would'relent. So night after night he sat at the corner table and laid card on. card, *.his'skill ' increasing with his hatred of the pasteboards. The task was a hard one, arid Tie had not succeeded before I left the town I some days later. I often wonder if he had the supreme, joy of completing, the thirteen stories, or if Marie relented, or if he 'went -back to' the north; in disgust. In any case, I can well believe that he ■ would never . again touch. a card.—Exchange.