Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 483

1888 · 32 pages

Hearts for Stakes: A Romance of Three Queens and Two Knaves Edward Willett's serialized romance follows gambling professionals and southern gentry aboard the riverboat *Thomas Swann*. Ben Stanniford, a young man of modest means who loves the orphaned Eva Bramwell (ward of Judge Bramwell Stacey of Mississippi), encounters Flush Fred, a professional cardsharp. When Fred defeats Tom Stacey (the judge's dissolute son) in poker, Judge Stacey insults him, leading to a confrontation. Fred retaliates with cutting remarks about Tom's cheating and the judge's poor manners. Unable to physically best Fred, Judge Stacey challenges him to unlimited-stakes draw poker—a deliberate gambit to leverage his superior capital against the professional. Fred accepts despite recognizing the disadvantage, unwilling to appear cowardly before witnesses. The narrative establishes competing romantic and financial stakes while introducing the confrontational relationship between Fred and the Staceys that will apparently drive the plot forward.

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