ye's
delight, the heart's desire; the lust of the flesh, the pride of
the intellect; see them all consumed to a handful of dust, and
trample out even the last spark of that, before the true phoenix
sprang; that only when half-gods go the gods arrive. But it's
true, Roddy! It's true!

"I won't grow dithyrambic--not just yet. I was so sure of my man
that it seemed quite worth while to tumble out at Avignon--a
place I had never inspected--and fool away another spell among
Roman remains, and Petrarch and the rival Popes, and the opening
scenes of the Revolution, and just thinking--thinking.

"So I reached Monte Carlo next day, a little after noon; took a
bath and a siesta; sauntered into the Casino there, a good
forty-eight hours behind time; and caught my man, sitting.

"Are you superstitious, Roddy? Of course you are: and so are all
of us who pretend that we are not. . . . Monte Carlo is the hell
of a hole. I had never seen it before: but as I went into the
Casino, all of a sudden I had a queer recollection--of a
breakfast-party at Cambridge in young La Touche's rooms, in
King's (he was killed in the South African War), and of his
saying solemnly as we lit cigarettes that he'd had a dream
overnight. He dreamed that he walked into the Casino at Monte
Carlo, went straight to the first table on the left, put down a
five-franc piece on Number 17, and came out a winner of
prodigious sums.

"Well, we are all humbugs about superstition. I don't believe
there's a man existent--that's to say, a tolerable man, a fellow
who isn't a prig--who doesn't touch posts, or count his steps on
the pavement, or choose what tie he'll wear on certain days,
or give way to some such human weakness when he's alone.
We so-called 'men of science' are, I truly believe, the worst of
the lot. You can't get rid of one fetish but you have instantly
the impulse to kneel to another . . .

"Anyhow, there was my man sitting, and the number 17 almost
straight before him, a little in front of his right arm; and
this recollection came to me; and I leaned over his shoulder and
laid a five-franc piece on the number.

"It won. I piled my winnings on the original stake, _plus_ all
my loose cash; and Number 17 won again.

"That's all. You know my old theory that ev