four o'clock in the
morning
Let us therefore be charitable ; none of us can tell to what we may be reduced by circumstances ; and when we acknowledge that the error is great , let us feel sorrow and pity rather than indignation , and pray that we also may not be '' _ led into temptation _ . '' As agreed upon , the next evening we repaired to the club , and found the two gentlemen ready to receive us . This time the major refused to play unless it was with me , as I had such good fortune , and no difficulty was made by our opponents . We sat down and played till four o'clock in the morning . At first , notwithstanding our good play , fortune favoured our adversaries ; but the luck soon changed , and the result of the evening was , that the major had a balance in his favour of forty pounds , and I rose a winner of one hundred and seventy-one pounds , so that in two nights we had won three hundred and forty-two pounds . For nearly three weeks this continued , the major not paying when not convenient , and we quitted Cheltenham with about eight hundred pounds in our pockets ; the major having paid about one hundred and twenty pounds to different people who frequented the club ; but they were Irishmen , who were not to be trifled with . I proposed to the major that we should pay those debts , as there still would be a large surplus : he replied , `` Give me the money . ''