ast quatre premier?" he asked of a neighbor whom he recognized.

"Seven, I think, Polk. Six or seven. How's tricks?"

"Oh, so so." He turned again to Aileen. "It ought to come up now soon.
I always make it a rule to double my plays each time. It gets you back
all you've lost, some time or other." He put down two twenties.

"Goodness," she exclaimed, "that will be two hundred! I had forgotten
that."

Just then the call came for all placements to cease, and Aileen
directed her attention to the ball. It circled and circled in its
dizzy way and then suddenly dropped.

"Lost again," commented Lynde. "Well, now we'll make it eighty," and
he threw down four twenties. "Just for luck we'll put something on
thirty-six, and thirteen, and nine." With an easy air he laid one
hundred dollars in gold on each number.

Aileen liked his manner. This was like Frank. Lynde had the cool
spirit of a plunger. His father, recognizing his temperament, had set
over a large fixed sum to be paid to him annually. She recognized, as
in Cowperwood, the spirit of adventure, only working out in another
way. Lynde was perhaps destined to come to some startlingly reckless
end, but what of it? He was a gentleman. His position in life was
secure. That had always been Aileen's sad, secret thought. Hers had
not been and might never be now.

"Oh, I'm getting foozled already," she exclaimed, gaily reverting to a
girlhood habit of clapping her hands. "How much will I win if I win?"
The gesture attracted attention even as the ball fell.

"By George, you have it!" exclaimed Lynde, who was watching the
croupier. "Eight hundred, two hundred, two hundred"--he was counting
to himself--"but we lose thirteen. Very good, that makes us nearly one
thousand ahead, counting out what we put down. Rather nice for a
beginning, don't you think? Now, if you'll take my advice you'll not
play quatre premier any more for a while. Suppose you double a
thirteen--you lost on that--and play Bates's formula. I'll show you
what that is."

Already, because he was known to be a plunger, Lynde was gathering a
few spectators behind him, and Aileen, fascinated, and not knowing
these mysteries of chance, was content to watch him. At one stage of
the playing Lynde leaned over and, seeing her smile, whispered:

"What adorable hair and eyes you have! You glow like a great rose. You
have a radiance that is wonderful."

"Oh, Mr. Lynde! How you talk! Does gambling a