adly
charm. The dull roar of undistinguishable voices sounded incessantly,
occasionally punctuated by those sharp, penetrating tones with which
the scattered dealers called varied turns of play, or by some deep oath
falling unnoted from desperate lips as the unhappy end came. Winston,
who had seen many similar scenes, glanced with his usual cool
indifference at the various groups of players, careless except in his
search, and pressing straight through the vibrating, excited throng,
regardless of the many faces fronting him. He understood that Farnham
dealt faro, and consequently moved directly down the long main room
totally indifferent to all else. He discovered his particular goal at
last, almost at the farther end of the great apartment, the crowd
gathered about the faro table dense and silent. He succeeded in
pressing in slowly through the outer fringe of players until he
attained a position within ten feet of the dealer. There he halted,
leaning against the wall, the narrow space between them unoccupied.

He saw before him a slenderly built, fashionably dressed figure,
surmounted by clear-cut, smooth-shaven features--a man of thirty,
possibly, decidedly aristocratic, perfectly self-controlled, his eyes
cool, calculating, his hands swift, unhesitating in play. From some
mysterious cause this masterful repose of the absorbed dealer began
immediately to exercise a serious fascination over the man watching
him. He did not appear altogether human, he seemed rather like some
perfectly adjusted machine, able to think and plan, yet as unemotional
as so much tempered steel. There was no perceptible change passing in
that utterly impassive face, no brightening of those cold, observant
eyes, no faintest movement of the tightly compressed lips. It was as
though he wore a mask completely eclipsing every natural human feeling.
Twice Winston, observing closely from his post of vantage slightly to
the rear the swift action of those slender white fingers, could have
sworn the dealer faced the wrong card, yet the dangerous trick was
accomplished so quickly, so coolly, with never a lowering of the eyes,
the twitching of a muscle, that a moment later the half-jealous watcher
doubted the evidence of his own keen eyesight. As the final fateful
card came silently gliding forth and was deliberately turned, face
upward, amid bitter curses telling the disappointment of that
breathless crowd, a young woman suddenly swept around th