There is no want of restaurants and cafes, or of places where food in abundance could be procured, though the price was rather astonishing. Captain Frankland had some business to transact with a merchant--he left us at one of them to dine.  When he rejoined us, he told us that he would take us to a scene in which he hoped we should never be tempted to mix.  We went out, and soon reached a magnificent building, full of spacious halls, with an orchestra keeping up a succession of attractive airs.  Making our way, not without difficulty, through the crowd, we saw before us several long, green-covered tables, surrounded by people, who appeared to be engaged in playing, on a grand scale, every conceivable game of chance.  Never did I see countenances so palpably expressive of the worst passions of our evil nature.  The keepers of the banks were evidently villains of the darkest dye.  They sat with their revolvers on the table, guarding the heaps of gold before them, as they skilfully managed the cards and dice over which they presided.  The captain assured us that they and those in league with them--the professional players--always contrived to collect the largest proportion of the gold in circulation--many of their foolish victims dissipating in one evening all the hard-earned gains of a year.  There were ladies, too, among them, gambling as eagerly as the men--dishonouring their sex.  The sight of those countenances and the whole air of the place was sickening. "Fifty ounces"--"A hundred"--"Two hundred ounces"--were the words we heard repeated on every side.  Presently a man started up--a fine, handsome young fellow--from before whom a heap of gold had been swept, clutching his hair.  "And I was to have started for home to-morrow.  O Mary!" he exclaimed, unconsciously, as he passed us.  There was the report of a pistol--a cry.  The young man was picked up dead at the door.  The players went on as before, scarcely turning their heads to hear the account.  Who the unhappy youth was, no one knew.  We had seen enough to answer the captain's object in taking us to the place.  We strolled on through the city till we reached the Chinese quarter. There, also, we were attracted by a strange noise intended for music, produced by two stringed-fiddles, violoncellos, drums, and gongs, into a building--a very shabby place; yet in the centre was a table with heaps of gold upon it, and surrounded by a number of odd little men in wide jackets, short trousers, long tails at their backs, huge embroidered slippers on their feet, all deeply engaged, as if some most serious matter were going forward--their queer eyes twinkling with mistrust as they followed the course of a game which was being played.  In the middle of the table was a heap of counters covered by a bowl, under which the players put their hands, and drew out a number of them at a time, which they counted with a long stick, and then the heaps of money changed owners, but on what grounds we could in no way discover.