edle
spinning round upon its mission.

Thrice she did this, thrice the eager faces bent over the revolving
needle, and each time I gathered from the murmurs around me that the
bank had won heavily. At the end of the third round the hostess
looked up and said to Loveday--

"You have been here before, and, if I remember rightly, were
unfortunate. Come and sit near me when you have a chance, and
perhaps you may break this run of luck. Even I am tiring of it.
Or better still, get that dark handsome friend of yours to stake for
you. Have you ever played before?" she asked, turning to me.

I shook my head.

"All the better. Fortune always favours beginners, and if it does I
shall be well recompensed to have so handsome a youth beside me," and
with this she turned to the game again.

At her right sat a grey-headed man with worn face and wolfish eyes,
who might have been expected to take this as a hint to make way.
But he never heard a word. All his sense was concentrated on the
board before him, and his only motion was to bend more closely and
eagerly over the play. Tom whispered in my ear--

"You have the money, Jasper; take her advice if you really mean to
play this farce out. Take the seat if you get a chance, and play
your own game."

"You have been here before," I answered, "and know more about the
game."

"Here before! Yes, to my cost. No, no, the idea of play is your own
and you shall carry it out. I am always unlucky, and as for
knowledge of the game, you can pick that up by watching a round or
two; it's perfectly simple."

Again the bank had won. At the left hand of our hostess stood a
stolid man holding a small shovel with which he gathered in the
winnings. All around were faces as of souls in torture; even the
features of the winners (and these were few enough) scarcely
expressed a trace of satisfaction, but seemed rather cast into some
horrible trance in which they saw nothing but the piles of coin, the
spinning needle, and the flashing hands of the woman that turned it.
She all the while sat passionless and cold, looking on the scene as
might some glittering and bejewelled sphinx.

As I gazed, as the needle whirled and stopped and once more whirled,
the mad excitement of the place came creeping upon me. The
glittering fingers of our hostess fascinated me as a serpent holds
its prey. The stifling heat, the glare, the confused murmurs mounted
like strong wine into my brain. The clink an