ked upon reality. The whole assembly seemed rather
like a room full of condemned spirits, with this woman sitting as
presiding judge.

As we still stood by the door a hush fell on the company; men and
women seemed to catch their breath and bend more intently over the
table. There was a pause; then someone called the number
"Thirty-one," and the buzz of voices broke out again--a mixture of
exclamations and disappointed murmurs. Then, and not till then, did
the woman at the head of the table speak, and when she spoke her
words were addressed to us.

"Come in, gentlemen, come in. You have not chosen your moment well,
for the Bank is winning; but you are none the less welcome."

Her eyes as she turned them again upon us did not alter their
expression. They were--though I can scarcely hope that this
description will be understood--at once perfectly vigilant and
absolutely impassive. But even more amazing was the voice that
contradicted both these impressions, being most sweetly and
delicately modulated, with a musical ring that charmed the ear as the
notes of a well-sung song. The others, hearing us addressed, turned
an incurious gaze upon us for a moment, and then fastened their
attention anew upon the table.

Thus welcomed, we too stepped forward to the centre of the room and
began to watch the game. I have never seen roulette played
elsewhere, so do not know if its accessories greatly vary, but this
is what I saw.

The table, which I have described as oblong, was lined to the width
of about a foot around the edge with green baize, and on this were
piled heaps of gold and silver, some greater, some less. Sunk in the
centre was a well, in which a large needle revolved upon a pivot at a
turn of the hand. The whole looked like a large ship's compass, but
instead of north, south, east, and west, the table around the well,
and at a level with the compass, was marked out into alternate spaces
of red and black, bearing--one on each space--the figures from 1 to
36, and ending in 0, so that in all there were thirty-seven spaces,
the one bearing the cipher being opposite to the strange woman who
presided. As the game began again the players staked their money on
one or another of these spaces. I also gathered that they could
stake on either black or red, or again on one of the three dozens--
1 to 12, 13 to 24, 25 to 36. When all the money was staked, the
woman bent forward, and with a sweep of her arm sent the ne