Vanity Fair - Page 304/573

The truth is, when we say of a gentleman that he lives elegantly on

nothing a year, we use the word "nothing" to signify something unknown;

meaning, simply, that we don't know how the gentleman in question

defrays the expenses of his establishment. Now, our friend the Colonel

had a great aptitude for all games of chance: and exercising himself,

as he continually did, with the cards, the dice-box, or the cue, it is

natural to suppose that he attained a much greater skill in the use of

these articles than men can possess who only occasionally handle them.

To use a cue at billiards well is like using a pencil, or a German

flute, or a small-sword--you cannot master any one of these implements

at first, and it is only by repeated study and perseverance, joined to

a natural taste, that a man can excel in the handling of either. Now

Crawley, from being only a brilliant amateur, had grown to be a

consummate master of billiards. Like a great General, his genius used

to rise with the danger, and when the luck had been unfavourable to him

for a whole game, and the bets were consequently against him, he would,

with consummate skill and boldness, make some prodigious hits which

would restore the battle, and come in a victor at the end, to the

astonishment of everybody--of everybody, that is, who was a stranger to

his play. Those who were accustomed to see it were cautious how they

staked their money against a man of such sudden resources and brilliant

and overpowering skill.

At games of cards he was equally skilful; for though he would

constantly lose money at the commencement of an evening, playing so

carelessly and making such blunders, that newcomers were often inclined

to think meanly of his talent; yet when roused to action and awakened

to caution by repeated small losses, it was remarked that Crawley's

play became quite different, and that he was pretty sure of beating his

enemy thoroughly before the night was over. Indeed, very few men could

say that they ever had the better of him. His successes were so

repeated that no wonder the envious and the vanquished spoke sometimes

with bitterness regarding them. And as the French say of the Duke of

Wellington, who never suffered a defeat, that only an astonishing

series of lucky accidents enabled him to be an invariable winner; yet

even they allow that he cheated at Waterloo, and was enabled to win the

last great trick: so it was hinted at headquarters in England that

some foul play must have taken place in order to account for the

continuous successes of Colonel Crawley.