e "did not care to run big risks for a woman." On
a thousand louis, Lord Dauntrey explained, five hundred francs profit
nightly represented 900 per cent. a year, which was of course enormous;
and regarded thus, her risk was an investment, not a speculation.

When some of Lady Dauntrey's bright particular stars left her firmament
(as they did leave occasionally with the quick flight of comets) she
hastened to fill the vacancies with any small luminaries available. The
Villa Bella Vista remained full, even when Mrs. Ernstein went suddenly
to Cannes, where "villa life" might be considered even more aristocratic
than at "Monte"; and Dom Ferdinand took himself and his ally out of
danger's way when Dodo refused to understand that only flirtation, not
marriage, was possible with a "commoner." The price of Dauntrey
hospitality had, however, fallen. Those who could be attracted by the
bait of their barren title had now to be looked for low in the social
scale: and it was difficult to get eligible _partis_ with whom to dazzle
heiresses. The slender Austrian count, whom Dodo scornfully pronounced a
"don't count," vanished mysteriously soon after Mary's arrival. He did
not even say goodbye; and Dodo, who vowed that she had often heard him
groaning behind the thin partition which divided her room from his,
went whispering about the house that he had committed suicide in the
Casino gardens.

"Why not?" she argued almost convulsively, when Mary protested that
surely such a dreadful thing could not have been kept secret. "Would the
Dauntreys tell, if they knew? No, of course they'd hush it up, and get
rid of anything he'd left--in one way or another. Not that there was
much to get rid of, for the Mont de Piete was a kind of home from home
for the Count. He used to run back and forth between there and the
Casino, like a distracted rabbit: pawn his watch; play with the money;
win; race back and get his watch; lose again; and so on a dozen times a
day, till he was stripped of jewellery down to his studs and collar
buttons. It all came from his obstinacy in believing that the croupiers
at trente et quarante were signalling to him whether it was going to be
_inverse_ or _couleur_, when they were really only licking their thumbs
to deal the cards better! _I_ say, if you must have a fetish, have a
reasonable one, like playing for neighbours of zero at roulette. But
that silly boy thought himself too smart for roulette, and he wouldn't
take a