determined to double on it until it
came out a prize. She began by putting down fifty cents. On the next day
she put down a dollar upon the same combination, losing, of course,
Two dollars were ventured on the next day; and so she went on doubling,
until, in her desperate infatuation, she doubled for the ninth time,
putting down two hundred and fifty-six dollars.

If successful now, she would draw over twenty-five thousand dollars.
There was no sleep for the poor lady during the night that followed.
She walked the floor of her chamber in a state of intense nervous
excitement, sometimes in a condition of high hope and confidence and
sometimes haunted by demons of despair. She sold five shares of stock
on which she had been receiving an annual dividend of ten per cent., in
order to get funds for this desperate gambling venture, in which over
five hundred dollars had now been absorbed.

Pale and nervous, she made her appearance at the breakfast-table on the
next morning, unable to take a mouthful of food. It was in vain that her
anxious daughters urged her to eat.

A little after twelve o'clock she was at the policy-office. The drawn
numbers for the morning were already in. Her combination was 4, 10, 40.
With an eagerness that could not be repressed, she caught up the slip
of paper containing the thirteen numbers out of seventy-five, which
purported to have been drawn that morning somewhere in "Kentucky," and
reported by telegraph--caught it up with hands that shook so violently
that she could not read the figures. She had to lay the piece of paper
down upon the little counter before which she stood, in order that it
might be still, so that she could read her fate.

The first drawn number was 4. What a wild leap her heart gave! The next
was 24; the next 8; the next 70; the next 41, and the next 39. Her heart
grew almost still; the pressure as of a great hand was on her bosom. 10
came next. Two numbers of her row were out. A quiver of excitement ran
through her frame. She caught up the paper, but it shook as before, so
that she could not see the figures. Dashing it back upon the counter,
and holding it down almost violently, she bent over, with eyes starting
from their sockets, and read the line of figures to the end, then sank
over upon the counter with a groan, and lay there half fainting and too
weak to lift herself up. If the 40 had been there, she would have made a
hit of twenty-five thousand dollars. But the 40 was