The consequence of this taste for his society carried young Burney into
every scene of high dissipation which, at that period, made the round
of the existence of a buckish fine gentleman; and he was continually of
the party at White’s, at Brookes’s, and at every other superfine club
house, whether public or private, to which the dangerous allurement
of gaming, or the scarcely less so of being _à la mode_, tempted his
fashionable patron.
As Mr. Greville uniformly, whether at cards, dice, or betting, played
with Honour, his success, of course, was precarious; but as he never
was so splendidly prosperous as to suffer himself to be beguiled out
of all caution; nor yet so frequently unfortunate as to be rendered
desperate, he was rarely distressed, though now and then he might be
embarrassed.
At these clubs, the subject of these memoirs witnessed scenes that were
ever after rivetted on his memory. Cards, betting, dice, opened every
nocturnal orgie with an _éclat_ of expectation, hope, ardour, and
fire, that seemed to cause a mental inflammation of the feelings and
faculties of the whole assembly in a mass.
On the first night of the entrance of young Burney into this set, Mr.
Greville amused himself with keeping out of the way, that he might
make over the new comer to what was called the humour of the thing; so
that, by being unknown, he might be assailed, as a matter of course,
for bets, holding stakes, choosing cards, &c. &c., and become initiated
in the arcana of a modish gaming house; while watchful, though apart,
Mr. Greville enjoyed, with high secret glee, the novelty of the youth’s
confusion.
But young Burney had the native good sense to have observed already,
that a hoax soon loses its power of ridicule where it excites no alarm
in its object. He gaily, therefore, treated as a farce every attempt
to bring him forward, and covered up his real ignorance upon such
subjects by wilful blunders that apparently doubled it; till, by making
himself a pretended caricature of newness and inaptness, he got, what
in coteries of that sort is always successful, the laugh on his side.
As the evening advanced, the busy hum of common-place chattery
subsided; and a general and collected calmness ensued, such as might
best dispose the gambling associates to a wily deliberation, how most
coolly to penetrate into the mystic obscurities that brought them
together.
All, however, was not yet involved in the gaping cauldron of chance,
whence so soon was to emerge the brilliant prize, or desolating blank,
that was to blazon the lustre, or stamp the destruction, of whoever,
with his last trembling mite, came to sound its perilous depths. They
as yet played, or prowled around it, lightly and slightly; not more
impatient than fearful of hurrying their fate; and seeking to hide
from themselves, as well as from their competitors, their anticipating
exultation or dread.
Still, therefore, they had some command of the general use of their
faculties, and of what was due from them to general social commerce.
Still some vivacious sallies called forth passing smiles from those
who had been seldomest betrayed, or whose fortunes had least been
embezzled; and still such cheeks as were not too dragged or haggard to
exhibit them, were able to give graceful symptoms of self-possession,
by the pleasing and becoming dimples produced through arch, though
silent observance.
But by degrees the fever of doubt and anxiety broke forth all around,
and every breath caught its infection. Every look then showed the
contagion of lurking suspicion: every eye that fixed a prosperous
object, seemed to fix it with the stamp of detection. All was contrast
the most discordant, unblended by any gradation; for wherever the
laughing brilliancy of any countenance denoted exulting victory, the
glaring vacancy of some other hard by, displayed incipient despair.
Like the awe of death was next the muteness of taciturnity, from the
absorption of agonizing attention while the last decisive strokes,
upon which hung affluence or beggary, were impending. Every die, then,
became a bliss or a blast; every extorted word was an execration; every
fear whispered ruin with dishonour; every wish was a dagger to some
antagonist!—till, finally, the result was proclaimed, which carried
off the winner in a whirl of maddening triumph; and to the loser left
the recovery of his nervous, hoarse, husky, grating voice, only for
curses and oaths, louder and more appalling than thunder in its deepest
roll.