el a dexterous twirl, and
ere it has made one revolution, casts into its Maelstrom of black and
red an ivory ball. The interval between this and the ball finding a home
is one of breathless anxiety. Stakes are eagerly laid; but at a certain
period of the revolution the banker calls out--"_Le Jeu est fait. Rien
ne va plus_,"--and after that intimation it is useless to lay down
money. Then the banker, in the same calm and impassable voice, declares
the result. It may run thus:--"_Vingt-neuf, Noir, Impair, et Passe,"
"Twenty-nine, Black, Odd, and Pass the Rubicon_" (No. 18); or, "_Huit,
Rouge, Pair, et Manque_," "Eight, Red, Even, and _NOT_ Pass the
Rubicon."

'Now, on either side of the wheel, and extending to the extremity of the
table, run, in duplicate, the schedule of _mises_ or stakes. The green
baize first offers just thirty-six square compartments, marked out
by yellow threads woven in the fabric itself, and bearing thirty-six
consecutive numbers. If you place a florin (one and eight-pence)--and no
lower stake is permitted--or ten florins, or a Napoleon, or an English
five-pound note, or any sum of money not exceeding the maximum, whose
multiple is the highest stake which the bank, if it loses, can be made
to pay, in the midst of compartment 29, and if the banker, in that calm
voice of his, has declared that 29 has become the resting place of
the ball, the croupier will push towards you with his rake exactly
thirty-three times the amount of your stake, whatever it might have
been. You must bear in mind, however, that the bank's loss on a single
stake is limited to eight thousand francs. Moreover, if you have placed
another sum of money in the compartment inscribed, in legible yellow
colours, "_Impair_," or Odd, you will receive the equivalent to your
stake--twenty-nine being an odd number. If you have placed a coin on
_Passe_, you will also receive this additional equivalent to your
stake, twenty-nine being "Past the Rubicon," or middle of the table of
numbers--18. Again, if you have ventured your money in a compartment
bearing for device a lozenge in outline, which represents black, and
twenty-nine being a black number, you will again pocket a double stake,
that is, one in addition to your original venture. More, and more
still,--if you have risked money on the columns--that is, betted on the
number turning up corresponding with some number in one of the columns
of the tabular schedule, and have selected the right