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GEORGE FITZ-BOODLE, ESQUIRE, TO OLIVER YORKE, ESQUIRE. OMNIUM CLUB, May 20, 1842.
DEAR SIR, -- I have always been considered the third-best whist-player in / Europe, and (though never betting more than five pounds) have for many / years past added considerably to my yearly income by my skill in the / game, until the commencement of the present season, when a French / gentleman, Monsieur Lalouette, was admitted to the club where I usually / play. His skill and reputation were so great, that no men of the club / were inclined to play against us two of a side; and the consequence has / been, that we have been in a manner pitted against one another. By a / strange turn of luck (for I cannot admit the idea of his superiority), / Fortune, since the Frenchman's arrival, has been almost constantly / against me, and I have lost two-and-thirty nights in the course of a / couple of score of nights' play. *