in the public Salle des Jeux. I should not care
to leave you alone there, even on a Monday evening."

"You talk as if I were sugar or salt that would melt!" said Sylvia, a
little vexed.

"One has to be very careful in a place like Lacville," said Anna shortly.
"There are all sorts of queer people gathered together here on the
look-out for an easy way of making money." She turned an affectionate
look on her friend. "You are not only very pretty, my dear Sylvia, but
you look what the people here probably regard as being of far more
consequence, that is, opulent."

"So I am," said Sylvia gaily, "opulent and very, very happy, dear Anna!
I am so glad that you brought me here, and first made me acquainted with
this delightful place! I am sure Switzerland would not have been half as
amusing as Lacville--"

* * * * *

The public gambling room was much quieter and emptier than it had been
on the Saturday when Sylvia had first seen it. But all the people playing
there, both those sitting at the table and those who stood in serried
ranks behind them, looked as if they were engaged on some serious
undertaking.

They did not appear, as the casual holiday crowd had done, free from
care. There was comparatively little talking among them, and each round
of the monotonous game was got through far quicker than had been the case
the week before. Money was risked, lost, or gained, with extraordinary
swiftness and precision.

A good many of the people there, women as well as men, glanced idly for
a moment at the two newcomers, but they soon looked away again, intent on
their play.

Sylvia felt keenly interested. She could have stopped and watched the
scene for hours without wanting to play herself; but Anna Wolsky soon
grew restless, and started playing. Even risking a few francs was better
to her than not gambling at all!

"It's an odd thing," she said in a low voice, "but I don't see here any
of the people I'm accustomed to see at Monte Carlo. As a rule, whenever
one goes to this kind of place one meets people one has seen before. We
gamblers are a caste--a sect part!"

"I can't bear to hear you call yourself a gambler," said Sylvia in a low
voice.

Anna laughed good-humouredly.

"Believe me, my dear, there is not the difference you apparently think
there is between a gambler and the man who has never touched a card."

Anna Wolsky looked round her as she spoke with a searching glance, and
t