t expect you to realise all that I have realised quite
so quickly, but I do want you to keep it in your mind that this thing
has come and that it can't be got rid of. I won't do anything foolish.
If it is necessary I will wait, but I am your lover now, as I always
must be."

He handed her into the car, the footman, in his long white livery,
standing somberly on one side. As they drove off she gave him her
fingers, and he walked back up the steps with the smile upon his lips
that comes to a man only once or twice in his lifetime.

CHAPTER XXVII

PLAYING FOR HIGH STAKES

Violet glanced at her watch with an exclamation of dismayed annoyance.
She leaned appealingly towards the croupier.

"But one coup more, monsieur," she pleaded. "Indeed your clock is fast."

The croupier shook his head. He was a man of gallantry so far as his
profession permitted, and he was a great admirer of the beautiful
Englishwoman, but the rules of the Club were strict.

"Madame," he pointed out, "it is already five minutes past eight. It is
absolutely prohibited that we start another coup after eight o'clock. If
madame will return at ten o'clock, the good fortune will without doubt
be hers."

She looked up at Draconmeyer, who was standing at her elbow.

"Did you ever know anything more hatefully provoking!" she complained.
"For two hours the luck has been dead against me. But for a few of my
_carres_ turning up, I don't know what would have happened. And now at
last my numbers arrive. I win _en plein_ and with all the _carres_ and
_chevaux_. This time it was twenty-seven. I win two _carres_ and I move
to twenty, and he will not go on."

"It is the rule," Draconmeyer reminded her. "It is bad fortune, though.
I have been watching the run of the table. Things have been coming more
your way all the time. I think that the end of your ill-luck has
arrived. Tell me, are you hungry?"

"Not in the least," she answered pettishly. "I hate the very thought of
dinner."

"Then why do we not go on to the Casino?" Draconmeyer suggested. "We can
have a sandwich and a glass of wine there, and you can continue your
vein."

She rose to her feet with alacrity. Her face was beaming.

"My friend," she exclaimed, "you are inspired! It is a brilliant idea. I
know that it will bring me fortune. To the Cercle Prive, by all means. I
am so glad that you are one of those men who are not dependent upon
dinner. But what about Linda?"

"She is not expec