Oscar and Lucinda Page #3

The school pays for all my needs.

- But I cannot stop gambling.

- But you give it all away.

You do not even have coal for a fire.

Look at how you live. You have nothing.

Look at your togs.

And stop fidgeting.

I have sunk so low.

I gamble even on the Sabbath:

On cards, on dogs, anything.

Whatever is going.

You do not have to go

to New South Wales for penance.

- Anyway, you cannot.

- Why not?

Because you cannot bear a little aqua.

You could not sail as far as Calais.

You wish me to flip this?

- Yes.

- You know I only use my own coins.

Call.

- I cannot.

- Why not?

- I am frightened.

- Then why do such things to yourself?

- Come, dear Odd Bod.

- Heads.

For a man

who could not bear a little aqua...

the Leviathan was the only ship

to travel on.

In second class,

you could go eight weeks...

and never find your way

to a porthole with a view of the sea.

Poor cow.

The owner of the Prince Rupert's

Glassworks had been told...

that on a clear day, from first class,

you could see all the way to China.

Up we go. Hold tight.

In a trice, Hopkins. I told you, in a trice.

Goodness! What a splurge all this is.

Is it you that paid the boy's passage?

I would not have him go away.

It certainly wasn't the Missionary Society.

Hopkins' old man writes about the Yea.

Melody.

- Mr. Carlyle's "Eternal Yea. "

- Dear, you make no sense.

"... bestowed by him on

his devoted pupils during their three... "

Father.

Get up. You're not one of them.

O, Lord God.

This is my son

from whom I have been estranged.

These are his friends and fellow voyagers.

O, Lord...

What can we do?

This is your caul...

From off your little head

when you were born.

It is said to save you from drowning.

Will we never stand together with God

on that happy day?

All ashore that's going ashore!

Get aboard!

Oscar knew it was only superstition...

that said a caul could prevent you

from drowning.

Yet he clung to the belief anyway.

You can no longer put me off.

You played too much cat and mouse.

We did not think

we were educating a wealthy man.

- I'm not...

- I'm not a cadger.

I do not come here to beg.

But you must tell me

how it is you managed all this.

If I told you and my father heard of it,

it would be torture beyond his toleration.

You have my word. He never shall.

Dear Oscar, accept my word.

I have gambled.

I knew it.

- So, gambled.

- The ship is moving.

- You have a system, as you call it?

- A system?

You have a system,

and you will write it down for me.

It's not simple thing you can write down.

We have left it too late.

- Write it down, boy! I beg you.

- You must go.

Is it horses?

It is.

Do you swear before God

that you will send me your system?

I do.

You must go.

Go!

Round you go.

- Okay, I'll raise you two even.

- I'm in.

Right, well, looks like we're playing

for a long time. I'll have double in.

Thank you very much.

Eeny, meeny, miney, mo.

I am in the habit of making my confession.

Quite.

- Lucinda Leplastrier. How do you do?

- Oscar Hopkins. How do you do?

- Do you hear confession?

- I have done, on occasion.

Perhaps it is not a habit you approve of.

No, I...

No.

- Would you hear mine?

- Of course.

Thank you.

Where shall I find you?

I'm in first class.

In order that I exist...

two gamblers, one obsessive,

the other compulsive...

must declare themselves.

You must excuse me

for not coming earlier.

Of course.

You must come and look at my view.

The purser calls them

"landscape windows... "

But I argue they should

rather be called "seascape... "

You see...

I have a phobia about the ocean.

My father was a naturalist.

He was in the ocean all the time.

I, too, when I was a little chap.

But I developed a nervousness about it,

like some have with heights.

So to come up here, with all this glass,

to hear your confession...

I feared it was more than I could manage.

But I owe you an apology.

As you see,

I was capable of coming all the time.

Confession?

"The Lord be in thy heart and on thy lips...

"and give thee grace

to make a true and faithful confession. "

So...

"I confess to God Almighty...

"and the whole company of Heaven...

"that I have sinned. "

I have attended rooms in Drury Lane...

For the purpose of playing Fan Tan.

I have played dice on a train

full of racing types.

I did not attend the racetrack...

But I went on that train

expressly to play dice.

I tried to persuade a business colleague

of mine to take me to a cockfight.

He refused, but I would have gone.

I set up the table here like this

as a trap for the steward...

Who I know to play poker.

I wished to play with them.

The dice that you played on the train...

Was it Dutch Hazards?

Yes, it was.

- We also played another game.

- Old British, perhaps?

Although in New South Wales,

it is known as Seventh Man.

- Who provided the Peter?

- "The Peter"?

- The term is unknown to you?

- No, I think it's quite familiar.

I thought so.

These terms, Mr. Hopkins...

- are they also familiar to you?

- I'm afraid so.

- This is most improper.

- I don't think so.

- You have not absolved me.

- Where is the sin?

We bet. It is all in Pascal, you know.

We bet that there is a God.

We bet our life on it.

We calculate the odds, the return...

That we shall sit with the saints

in Paradise.

Our anxiety about our bet

wakes us before dawn in a cold sweat.

And God sees us suffer.

I cannot believe that such a God...

Whose fundamental requirement of us

is that we gamble our souls...

It's true, we stake everything

on the fact of his existence.

I cannot believe that such a God

can look unkindly on a chap...

Wagering a few quid on the likelihood

of a dumb animal crossing the line first.

Unless it might be considered...

A blasphemy...

To apply to common pleasure

that which is divine.

Shall we play?

- Yes.

- Yes!

- One shilling.

- I raise you a shilling.

I shall see you.

Your two.

Your four.

I raise you three.

I'll see you.

- I have led you astray!

- What?

No, I led you astray. You must forgive me.

Of course I forgive you.

- I played for pleasure.

- No!

Stop it!

Oh, dear.

The scandal kept Lucinda a prisoner

in her stateroom.

She waited for Oscar to apologize...

but she did not hear a word.

My great-grandfather did not emerge

from his cabin...

until the Pinchgut cannons

saluted the great ship's entry...

into Sydney Harbor.

Do not fear for your wife's cloth, Dean.

Not a drop will spill.

You will see I was not boasting.

I'll take a small bet on it.

Will no one humor me?

- Half a crown, my Lord. Double or nothing.

- Done.

Now concentrate.

Watch.

You will not see this done

by many other bishops.

- Allow me to remove this.

- No, leave it.

You did not believe that I could do it.

Well done, my lord.

I hear that your glass lady has returned.

- I beg your pardon, my lord?

- Your petite amie.

Miss Leplastrier is not that, my lord.

She has arrived just in time

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