ho could possibly lose through
the enterprise, was promptly consulted by telegram. His answer was that
he was coming out himself in a month or so, and begged us to stay where
we were, but to suspend our play till the situation could be discussed
more fully. By this prudent decision on his part I was not myself
displeased; for system-playing, even when successful, I discovered to be
a very tedious matter.

Meanwhile, in respect of amusements, we four were by no means derelicts.
Empty as Monte Carlo was, some villas were already occupied, one of
these being Le Nid, of which Laura, Lady Wilton was the mistress--a
woman whose hospitalities were no less agreeable than herself. Having
found out enough about us to show her that we were at least presentable,
she inaugurated an acquaintance with us by sending a little box to
myself, which proved to contain, on being opened, something in the
nature of a valentine. It contained a spray of mimosa packed in cotton
wool, and lying like an elf among the petals was a little sleeping bat.
Lady Wilton a week before had appeared as the Evening Star at a fancy
ball at Nice. In return for her valentine I bought a microscopic puppy,
which, packed in cotton wool and inclosed in a box as the bat was, was
transmitted to her by a florist with a card attached to its person, and
bearing the words, "From the bat to the Evening Star." Among other
friends whom I discovered at Monte Carlo, I may mention a certain family
whom I had once known well at Homburg, but had never seen again till
now--a father, a mother, and an eminently beautiful daughter. Their home
at Monte Carlo was a villa, small, but so curtained with velvet that it
looked like a French jewel box. It was smothered in Banksia roses, and
it overlooked the sea. By one of its windows the daughter would play the
harp.

At length Beckett arrived, bringing his wife with him. Apart from the
matter of the system, their coming effected a change which to me was
extremely grateful. The Becketts and I before long migrated from Monte
Carlo, and took a villa between us for a couple of months at Beaulieu.
As for the system, Beckett, who was by no means disheartened, played it
himself for many nights in succession, and ultimately admitted that
there were defects in it which its late breakdown had revealed rather
than caused. Not long afterward he was persuaded into adopting another,
commended to him by Butler Johnson, once a prominent Member of
Parliam