y.

She wanted to show Vanno, if he still thought of her, that others burned
incense to her beauty, though he had not placed her on an altar. The
discomforts of the Villa Bella Vista mattered little to the girl who had
gone through a hard novitiate in a Scotch convent. She made her own bed
and dusted her room. She did not care what she ate; and she tried to
throw her whole heart into the life of the household, that amazing
household which was unlike anything she could have imagined out of a
disordered dream.

Always after coming to the Dauntreys' she continued to lose at the
Casino, often large sums, occasionally picking up a little, as if luck
hovered near, awaiting its cue to return, only to be frightened away
again. But after a few days' time, in which more than two hundred
thousand francs slipped through her fingers, Lady Dauntrey suggested
that Miss Grant should "rest" for a while, meantime letting Dauntrey
play his system for her benefit and with her capital. This idea did not
amuse Mary.

The "gambler's blood," of which she had been warned by her father,
warmed to the excitement of the game. She craved this excitement, and
felt lost without it, now that the interest of Prince Vanno's distant
presence in her life was gone. Still, she could not bring herself to
refuse an offer which seemed meant in kindness. She gave Lord Dauntrey
one thousand louis, the smallest capital, he explained, necessary to
exploit his system with five-franc pieces at roulette. He assured her
that with pleasure he would add this money to the same sum of his own,
and play for her as well as himself, the syndicate he had originally
formed being now dissolved. Dodo hinted that operations had been stopped
because the whole capital was lost, but Lord Dauntrey had already
mentioned to Mary that a few slight reverses had frightened the
"shareholders." This cowardice, he said, had so disgusted him that he
had given back the capital to each one intact, and politely refused to
play any longer for the syndicate. A position of such responsibility was
only possible if he were upheld by the confidence of all concerned.
Otherwise, he preferred to gamble only for himself, or for a personal
friend or two who trusted him.

Each night, after Mary placed her thousand louis in his hands, Lord
Dauntrey gave her five hundred francs. This was as high a percentage, he
made clear to her, as could be got out of the capital except at a risk
of heavy losses, and h