Many strange scenes have
occurred in this house, some followed by tragic consequences too
painful to relate, others ridiculous and amusing. Here it was
that an angry caster, having lost his last sovereign and his
temper, also placed his black hat in the centre of the table,
swore that it was white, and finding no one disposed to dispute
his accuracy, flung himself from the room, and enabled the next
player who had won so largely and smiled so good-humouredly to
take the box in turn. But fortune deserted him also, and left
him penniless, when, glaring savagely round the room, and
striking the table violently, he thundered forth the inquiry,
"Where was the rascal who said his hat was white?" It was here
also (although the venue has been changed by story-mongers) that
a well-known frequenter of the house, a sporting M.P., on one
occasion dropped on the 'door or in the passage a bank-note
without discovering his loss till he had reached home. On the
next evening he returned to inquire for it in a forlorn-hope
spirit, when the following conversation took place between him
and the porter:--
"M.P. I think, Simpson, I dropped a note here last night--did
you see it?
"Porter.
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