Varney the Vampire 2(90)
"'It is bad luck now,' I would say; 'but will be better by-and-bye; things cannot always continue thus. It is all for them--all for them.'
"I thought that by continuing constantly in one course, I must be at land at the ebb of the tide. 'It cannot always flow one way,' I thought. I had often heard people say that if you could but have the resolution to play on, you must in the end seize the turn of fortune.
"'If I could but once do that, I would never enter a hell again as long as I drew breath.'
"This was a resolve I could not only make but keep, because I had suffered so much that I would never run through the same misery again that I had already gone through. However, fortune never seemed inclined to take the turn I had hoped for; fortune was as far off as ever, and had in no case given me any opportunity of recovering myself.
"A few pounds were the utmost I could at any time muster, and I had to keep up something of an appearance, and seem as if I had a thousand a year; when, God knows, I could not have mustered a thousandth part of that sum, were all done and paid for.
"Day after day passed on, and yet no change. I had almost given myself up to despair, when one night when I went home I saw my wife was more than usually melancholy and sad, and perhaps ill; I didn't look at her--I seldom did, because her looks were always a reproach to me; I could not help feeling them so.
"'Well,' said I, 'I have come home to you because I have something to bring you; not what I ought--but what I can--you must be satisfied!'--'I am,' she said.
"'I know also you want it; how is the child, is she quite well?'--'Yes, quite.'
"'Where is she?' inquired I, looking round the room, but I didn't see her; she used to be up.--'She has gone to bed,' she said.
"'It is very early.'--'Yes, but she cried so for food that I was obliged to get her to sleep to forget her hunger: poor thing, she has wanted bread very badly.'
"'Poor thing!' I said, 'let her be awakened and partake of what I have brought home.'
"With that my wife waked her up, and the moment she opened her eyes she again began to cry for food, which I immediately gave her and saw her devour with the utmost haste and hunger. The sight smote my heart, and my wife sat by watching, and endeavouring to prevent her from eating so fast.
"'This is bad,' I said.--'Yes, but I hope it may be the worst,' she replied, in a deep and hollow voice.
"'Lizzy,' I exclaimed, 'what is the matter--are you ill?'--'Yes, very ill.'
"'What is the matter with you? For God's sake tell me,' I said, for I was alarmed.--'I am very ill,' she said, 'very ill indeed; I feel my strength decreasing every day. I must drink.'
"You, too, want food?'--'I have and perhaps do, though the desire to eat seems almost to have left me.'
"'For Heaven's sake eat,' said I; 'I will bring you home something more by to-morrow; eat and drink Lizzy. I have suffered; but for you and your child's sake, I will do my best.'--'Your best,' she said, 'will kill us both; but, alas, there is no other aid at hand. You may one day, however, come here too late to find us living.'
"'Say no more, Lizzy, you know not my feelings when you speak thus; alas, I have no hope--no aid--no friend.'--'No,' she replied, 'your love of gaming drove them from you, because they would not aid a gambler.'
"'Say no more, Lizzy,' I said; 'if there be not an end to this life soon, there will be an end to me. In two days more I shall return to you. Good bye; God bless you. Keep up your heart and the child.'--'Good bye,' she said, sorrowfully. She shed tears, and wrung her hands bitterly. I hastened away--my heart was ready to burst, and I could not speak.
"I walked about to recover my serenity, but could not do so sufficiently well to secure anything like an appearance that would render me fit to go to the gaming-house. That night I remained away, but I could not avoid falling into a debauch to drown my misfortunes, and shift the scene of misery that was continually before my eyes."
* * * * *
"The next night I was at the gaming-house. I went there in better than usual spirits. I saw, I thought, a change in fortune, and hailed that as the propitious moment of my life, when I was to rise above my present misfortunes.
"I played and won--played and lost--played and won, and then lost again; thus I went on, fluctuating more and more, until I found I was getting money in my pocket. I had, at one moment more than three hundred pounds in my pocket, and I felt that then was my happy moment--then the tide of fortune was going in my favour. I ought to have left off with that--to have been satisfied with such an amount of money; but the demon of avarice seemed to have possessed me, and I went on and on with fluctuating fortune, until I lost the whole of it.