have luck on your first night. Even I used to have luck at first."

"Have you none now?" Mary asked, pityingly.

"Oh, I have no longer even the money to try my luck--to see whether it
has come back. Yet once I won twenty thousand francs, all from one louis
at trente et quarante, and at one seance. That was a night! a memory to
live on. And at present it is well I have it to live on, as there is
nothing else."

"Oh, how sad, how sad!" exclaimed Mary. "If only you would let me help
you a little--in some way."

"You are very good, but of course I could not accept charity," said the
pale rose, looking down at her faded lace and muslin finery. "Still, if
I bring you luck at the game, and you win, I shall feel I have earned
something, is it not?"

"Yes, indeed," Mary assured her, delighted with the simple solution.
"But it seems impossible to get near a table."

"It is not impossible," said the other, a gleam bright as the flash of a
needle darting from her jade gray eyes. "Many of those people are only
watching. They must give way to serious players. You will see! Shall it
be trente et quarante or roulette? Roulette, you can tell by the name,
is played with a wheel. Trente et quarante with cards--and for that you
must go to another room, for all is roulette here. In the card game a
louis is the smallest stake. At roulette it is five francs."

"I have only five hundred francs," Mary announced.

"Then I advise roulette. Besides, it is more amusing. Never can one tire
of seeing the wheel go round, and wondering where the dear little white
ball will come to rest."

"Yes, I feel I shall like roulette better," Mary decided.

"That is right. You have temperament, Mademoiselle. Already you listen
to your feelings. I too, have a strong feeling. It is, that we shall be
friends. My name is Madame d'Ambre--Madeleine d'Ambre. And yours?"

"Mary Grant."

"Madame or Mademoiselle?"

"Mademoiselle, of course." Mary blushed.

It seemed almost shocking that any one could even fancy she might be
married, she who was just out of the cloister, almost a nun.

"Ah, here one is so often Madame while still quite young. Now, let us
follow that tall, _chic_ Monsieur who has but one eye and one ear. If we
can play what he plays, we are sure to win. Often, when near him, I have
prayed that even one five-franc piece might come my way, for since he
lost an eye and an ear he never loses money. It was different when he
was here a few year