ce. She has with her a
_suite_ of eight domestics; and when she wins (which is not often), on
returning to her hotel at night, she presents each member of her
retinue with--twopence! "not," as she naively avows, "from a feeling of
generosity, but to propitiate Fortune." When she loses, none of them,
save the man who wheels her home, get anything but hard words from her;
and he, happy fellow, receives a donation of six kreutzers. She does not
curse the croupiers loudly for her bad luck, like her contemporary, the
once lovely Russian Ambassadress; but, being very far advanced in years,
and of a tender disposition, sheds tears over her misfortunes, resting
her chin on the edge of the table. An edifying sight is this venerable
dame, bearing an exalted title, as she mopes and mouths over her varying
luck, missing her stake twice out of three times, when she fain would
push it with her rake into some particular section of the table! She is
very intimate with one or two antediluvian diplomatists and warriors,
who are here striving to bolster themselves up for another year with the
waters, and may be heard crowing out lamentations over her fatal passion
for play, interspersed with bits of moss-grown scandal, disinterred
from the social ruins of an age long past: Radetzky, Wratislaw (le beau
sabreur), the two Schwarzenbergs (he of Leipsic, and the former Prime
Minister), Paul Eszterhazy, Wrangel, and Blucher were friends of her
youth; judging from her appearance, one would not be surprised to hear
that she had received a "poulet" from Baron Trenck, or played whist with
Maria Theresa. She has outlived all human friendships or affections, and
exists only for the chink of the gold as it jingles on the gaming table.
I cannot help fancying that her last words will be "Rien ne va
plus!" She is a great and convincing moral, if one but interpret her
rightly.'(83)

(83) Daily Telegraph, Aug. 15, 1868.

The doom of the German gaming houses seems to be settled. They will all
be closed in 1872, as appears by the following announcement:--

'The Prussian government, not having been able to obtain from the
lessees of the gaming tables at Wiesbaden, Ems, and Hombourg their
consent to their cancelling of their contracts, has resolved to
terminate their privileges by a legislative measure. It has presented a
bill to the Chamber of Deputies at Berlin, fixing the year 1872 as the
limit to the existence of these establishments, and even author