Read "The Fatal Boots" by William Makepeace Thackeray online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Was there ever such confounded ill-luck? My whole life has been a tissue / of ill-luck: although I have labored perhaps harder than any man to make / a fortune, something always tumbled it down. In love and in war I was / not like others. In my marriages, I had an eye to the main chance; and / you see how some unlucky blow would come and throw them over. In the / army I was just as prudent, and just as unfortunate. What with judicious / betting, and horse-swapping, good-luck at billiards, and economy, I do / believe I put by my pay every year, -- and that is what few can say who / have but an allowance of a hundred a year.
I'll tell you how it was. I used to be very kind to the young men; I / chose their horses for them, and their wine: and showed them how to play / billiards, or ecarte, of long mornings, when there was nothing better / to do. I didn't cheat: I'd rather die than cheat; -- but if fellows WILL / play, I wasn't the man to say no -- why should I? There was one young chap / in our regiment of whom I really think I cleared 300L. a year.