said, people often lost or won fortunes in these rooms in a single
night; but no one in this moving crowd looked either very miserable or
very radiant. They did not even appear to be greatly excited, yet most
of them seemed absorbed, as if they listened for a sound which would
mean something of vital importance; or else they had an air of fearing
that they had missed the all-essential signal which might never come
again.

It was not the "high season" yet, Mary's waiter at the Paris had said,
and the "_vrai monde_" would not come in its greatest rush until after
Christmas and the New Year; yet the Casino was filled with a throng of
persons many of whom looked immensely rich and important, and none of
whom, at worst, was shabby. Even those who were dowdy appeared
well-to-do. Mary saw that it was not necessary to gamble in groups. Men
and even women, all alone, pushed their way through the thick wall of
hats and shoulders round the table, sometimes being lost altogether, or
sometimes emerging again in three or four minutes to scurry across the
shining expanse of floor to another table. By and by, when she began to
feel calmer, Mary ventured near a table in the middle of the room,
within full sight of doors which led to other rooms: a long vista
straight ahead, where all the decorations seemed new and fresh, and a
light white as silver streamed from hanging lamps like diamond pendants
and necklaces for giantesses or goddesses of fortune. So different was
the colour of this light from that of the first great _salle_, that a
silver wall seemed built against a wall of gold.

Standing outside the circle at the table, new sounds in the silence
struck Mary's ear, not emphasizing the heavy silence, as did the
delicate chinking of coins and the announcements of roulette numbers,
but jarring and ruffling its smooth surface: little sudden rustlings and
squabblings, disputes between players in French or German, sharp and
mean, yet insignificant as the quarrelling of a nestful of birds in the
ample peace of a spreading beech tree.

Now and then there seemed a chance that Mary might find a place in the
back row at a table, but some one else, also watching, invariably darted
in ahead of her. Each time the hope came, her heart gave a bound, and
the blood sang in her ears. She was astonished at her excitement, which
seemed exaggerated beyond reason, and ridiculous, yet she could not
conquer it; and the trembling that ran through her body