lay of chances and of
calculations, and not because of any vulgar desire to win. In a word,
he must look upon the gaming-table, upon roulette, and upon trente et
quarante, as mere relaxations which have been arranged solely for his
amusement. Of the existence of the lures and gains upon which the bank
is founded and maintained he must profess to have not an inkling. Best
of all, he ought to imagine his fellow-gamblers and the rest of the mob
which stands trembling over a coin to be equally rich and gentlemanly
with himself, and playing solely for recreation and pleasure. This
complete ignorance of the realities, this innocent view of mankind, is
what, in my opinion, constitutes the truly aristocratic. For instance,
I have seen even fond mothers so far indulge their guileless, elegant
daughters--misses of fifteen or sixteen--as to give them a few gold
coins and teach them how to play; and though the young ladies may have
won or have lost, they have invariably laughed, and departed as though
they were well pleased. In the same way, I saw our General once
approach the table in a stolid, important manner. A lacquey darted to
offer him a chair, but the General did not even notice him. Slowly he
took out his money bags, and slowly extracted 300 francs in gold, which
he staked on the black, and won. Yet he did not take up his
winnings--he left them there on the table. Again the black turned up,
and again he did not gather in what he had won; and when, in the third
round, the RED turned up he lost, at a stroke, 1200 francs. Yet even
then he rose with a smile, and thus preserved his reputation; yet I
knew that his money bags must be chafing his heart, as well as that,
had the stake been twice or thrice as much again, he would still have
restrained himself from venting his disappointment.

On the other hand, I saw a Frenchman first win, and then lose, 30,000
francs cheerfully, and without a murmur. Yes; even if a gentleman
should lose his whole substance, he must never give way to annoyance.
Money must be so subservient to gentility as never to be worth a
thought. Of course, the SUPREMELY aristocratic thing is to be entirely
oblivious of the mire of rabble, with its setting; but sometimes a
reverse course may be aristocratic to remark, to scan, and even to gape
at, the mob (for preference, through a lorgnette), even as though one
were taking the crowd and its squalor for a sort of raree show which
had been organised specially fo