as
never ceased to impress me most forcibly--not only do the individual
peculiarities of the man give way before the all-absorbing passion--but
stranger still, the very boldest traits of nationality even fade and
disappear before it; and man seems, under the high-pressure power of this
greatest of all stimulants, resolved into a most abstract state.

Among all the traits which distinguish Frenchmen from natives of every
country, none is more prominent than a kind of never-failing elasticity
of temperament, which seems almost to defy all the power of misfortune to
depress. Let what will happen, the Frenchman seems to possess some
strong resource within himself, in his ardent temperament, upon which he
can draw at will; and whether on the day after a defeat, the moment of
being deceived in his strongest hopes of returned affection--the
overthrow of some long-cherished wish--it matters not--he never gives way
entirely; but see him at the gaming-table--watch the intense, the aching
anxiety with which his eye follows every card as it falls from the hand
of the croupier--behold the look of cold despair that tracks his stake as
the banker rakes it in among his gains--and you will at once perceive
that here, at least, his wonted powers fail him. No jest escapes the
lips of one, that would badinet upon the steps of the guillotine. The
mocker who would jeer at the torments of revolution, stands like a coward
quailing before the impassive eye and pale cheek of a croupier. While
I continued to occupy myself by observing the different groups about me,
I had been almost mechanically following the game, placing at each deal
some gold upon the table; the result however had interested me so
slightly, that it was only by remarking the attention my game had excited
in others, that my own was drawn towards it. I then perceived that I had
permitted my winnings to accumulate upon the board, and that in the very
deal then commencing, I had a stake of nearly five hundred pounds upon
the deal.

"Faites votre jeu, le jeu est fait," said the croupier, "trente deux."

"You have lost, by Jove," said Guy, in a low whisper, in which I could
detect some trait of agitation.

"Trente et une," added the croupier. "Rouge perd, et couleur."

There was a regular buz of wonder through the room at my extraordinary
luck, for thus, with every chance against me, I had won again.

As the croupier placed the billets de banque upon the table, I overheard