ent. This system, mechanical rather than mathematical, was based
on the assumption that the roulettes used at Monte Carlo were in all
probability not accurate implements--that the bearings, unless
constantly rectified, would soon be so worn with use that the wheel
during a long enough period would bring out certain numbers in more than
their due proportion. Hence, anyone backing these--so the argument
ran--was necessarily bound in the long run to win. This conclusion,
reached by a feat of _a priori_ reasoning, was due to the ingenuity of
an English engineer called Jaggers, and it was verified by the fact that
a system having this mechanical basis was ultimately, with astounding
success, played by a syndicate of persons who, before the officials of
the Casino managed to detect its nature, had won no less than eighty
thousand pounds between them. The secret, however, was found out at
last. Before the players were aware of it, the construction of the
roulettes was amended. Each was built up of a number of interchangeable
parts, the construction of no wheel being for any two days the same. The
spell was broken; the players began to lose. One or two of them,
suspecting what had actually happened, withdrew from the enterprise and
carried off their gains along with them. Less prudent and more sanguine,
the rest persisted till all that they had gained was gone. An Italian
professor of mathematics, however, declared that, despite the officials,
he had discovered how this system might be revived in a new and more
delicate form; and Beckett, with renewed hopes, was induced to finance
for a time the second experiment out of some of the capital which he had
got together for his first. The money, however, melted away as though by
a slow hemorrhage; before very long he refused to produce more, and the
history of both systems thus came to an end.

But the pleasantness of our life at Beaulieu was sufficient to
counterbalance the disappointments inflicted on us by Fortune at the
gaming tables. Our fantastic villa was embowered in flowers and foliage.
Buginvillaeas made a purple flame on the walls. An avenue of palms led
down from the house to the flashings of a minute harbor, on which
fishing boats rocked their gayly painted prows, while woods of olive
made a mystery of the impending hills behind. Friends and acquaintances
from Cannes often came to lunch with us, Alfred Montgomery and the
Duchess of Montrose among them. Beckett's spirits