going in. None of these benches was empty, but one was
unoccupied save for a young man and a girl, who sat at one end. Mary
rather timidly took the other corner, but the couple, after giving her a
long stare, returned to their conversation as if she were no more than a
shadow.

"This is the last, last straw!" the man grumbled, in English. "I thought
there was one missing."

"They never forget to add it to the rest," said the girl.

"Not they," he echoed. "And I wasn't doing so badly at one time. I've a
mind to apply for the _viatique_."

"I shouldn't have the courage."

"Oh, I should. I'd like to get something out of them. I hate the
Riviera, anyhow. There's too much scenery all over the place. No rest
for the eye."

"But supposing you change your mind, and want come back and try your
luck? You couldn't, if you'd taken the _viatique_."

"Yes I could--when I'd paid it back. It's supposed to be a loan, you
know, which you have to repay before you're allowed to play again."

"Oh, I didn't know!"

A group of young men walked past, laughing. "Never saw such a run of
luck," said one. "Seventeen on red and I was on it from the first.
Glorious place, Monte! Let's drink its health!"

They turned, stared with interest at Mary, and passed on, lowering their
voices. She caught the words "something new," but there was no sense in
them for her ears. She saw the Dauntreys hurrying to the Casino, with
Mrs. Collis and her daughter, and Dodo Wardropp. Two men were with them,
both young, and one rather distinguished looking. All were too deeply
absorbed in themselves and each other to notice her. The ladies were
charmingly dressed, and so were most of the women who passed, all going
quickly like the figures of a cinematograph; but some were of the
strangest possible types. Mary said to herself that they must be
infinitely more interesting in their own secret selves than lookers on
could ever know. The hidden realities in all these passionately
egotistic selves came to her as she sat watching, in attractive or
repellent flashes of light. Then she lost the secret again, and they
became mere puppets in a moving show. The only real thing was the
Casino, and she began to study the large bright face of it.

Although Mary had never travelled till now, she knew something of
architecture from beautiful pictures of ancient Greece and Rome, and
Egypt, and of the world's noblest cathedrals, which decorated the
schoolroom walls at St. Ur