with the Heidsieck they
had consumed. They sat out on the terrace. It was December, but like an
English June. And the pride of life, and the beauty of the world and of
women and of the costumes of women, informed and uplifted his soul. He
thought neither of the past nor of the future, but simply and intensely
of the present. He would not even ask himself why, really, Cosette had
come to Monte Carlo. She said she had come with Loulou, because they
both wanted to come; and Loulou was in bed with _migraine_; but as for
Cosette, she never had the _migraine_, she was never ill. And then the
sun touched the Italian hills, and the sea slept, and ... and ... what a
planet, this earth! He could almost understand why Tom had wept between
Cannes and Nice.

It was arranged that the four should dine together that evening, if
Loulou had improved and Tom was discoverable. Henry promised to discover
him. Cosette announced that she must visit Loulou, and they parted for a
few brief hours.

'_Mon petit!_' she threw after him.

To see that girl tripping along the terrace in the sunset was a sight!

Henry went to the Hotel des Anglais, but Tom had not been seen there.
He strolled back to the Casino gardens. The gardeners were drawing
suspended sheets over priceless blossoms. When that operation was
finished, he yawned, and decided that he might as well go into the
Casino for half an hour, just to watch the play.

The atmosphere of the gay but unventilated rooms was heavy and noxious.

He chose a different table to watch, a table far from the scene of his
early triumph. In a few minutes he said that he might as well play, to
pass the time. So he began to play, feeling like a giant among pigmies.
He lost two hundred francs in five spins.

'Steady, my friend!' he enjoined himself.

Now, two hundred francs should be the merest trifle to a man who has won
sixty-three thousand francs. Henry, however, had not won sixty-three
thousand francs. On the other hand, it was precisely Henry who had paid
sixty-five francs for lunch for two that day, and Henry who had lent Tom
a hundred and seventy-five francs, and Henry who had paid Tom's hotel
bill in Paris, and Henry who had left England with just fifty-five
pounds--a sum which he had imagined to be royally ample for his needs on
the Continent.

He considered the situation.

He had his return-ticket from Monte Carlo to Paris, and his
return-ticket from Paris to London. He probably owed fifty