ver, a card printed
in black and red, and a long pin, wherewith to prick out a system of
infallible gain. The croupiers take their seats and unpack the strong
box; rouleaux--long metal sausages composed of double and single
florins,--wooden bowls brimming over with gold Frederics and Napoleons,
bank notes of all sizes and colours, are arranged upon the black leather
compartment, ruled over by the company's officers; half-a-dozen packs
of new cards are stripped of their paper cases, and swiftly shuffled
together; and when all these preliminaries, watched with breathless
anxiety by the surrounding speculators, have been gravely and carefully
executed, the chief croupier looks round him--a signal for the prompt
investment of capital on all parts of the table--chucks out a handful of
cards from the mass packed together convenient to his hand--ejaculates
the formula, "Faites le jeu!" and, after half a minute's pause, during
which he delicately moistens the ball of his dealing thumb, exclaims "Le
jeu est fait, rien ne va plus," and proceeds to interpret the decrees of
fate according to the approved fashion of Trente et Quarante. A similar
scene is taking place at the Roulette table--a goodly crop of florins,
with here and there a speck of gold shining amongst the silver harvest,
is being sown over the field of the cloth of green, soon to be reaped
by the croupier's sickle, and the pith ball is being dropped into the
revolving basin that is partitioned off into so many tiny black and red
niches. For the next twelve hours the processes in question are carried
on swiftly and steadily, without variation or loss of time; relays of
croupiers are laid on, who unobtrusively slip into the places of their
fellows when the hours arrive for relieving guard; the game is never
stopped for more than a couple of minutes at a time, viz., when the
cards run out and have to be re-shuffled. This brief interruption is
commonly considered to portend a break in the particular vein which the
game may have happened to assume during the deal--say a run upon black
or red, an alternation of coups (in threes or fours) upon either
colour, two reds and a black, or _vice versa_, all equally frequent
eccentricities of the cards; and the heavier players often change
their seats, or leave the table altogether for an hour or so at such a
conjuncture. Curiously enough, excepting at the very commencement of the
day's play, the _habitues_ of the Trente et Quarante t