she lost, and again on the middle
dozen.

But she won with two louis on thirty-six. Then what she did showed me
that, if a novice at a convent, she was, at any rate, no novice at
roulette, for she shifted her stake to the "first four"--a favourite
habit of gamblers--and won again.

Then, growing suddenly calm again, she exchanged her gold for notes, and
crushing the bundle into her pocket, turned with me from the table.

I was amazed. I could not make her out in the least. Had all her
ingenuousness been assumed? If it had, then I had been sadly taken in
over her.

Together we went out, crossed the Place, and sat on the terrace of the
Cafe de Paris, where we took tea--with orange-flower water, of course.
While there she took out her money and counted it--eleven thousand two
hundred francs, or in English money the respectable sum of four hundred
and forty-eight pounds.

"What luck you've had, mademoiselle!" I exclaimed.

"Yes; I only had two hundred francs to commence, so I won exactly eleven
thousand."

"Then take my advice, and don't play again as long as you are in this
place, for you're sure to lose it. Go away a winner. I once won five
hundred francs, and made a vow never to play again. That's a year ago,
and I have never staked a single piece since. The game over there,
mademoiselle, is a fool's game," I added, pointing to the facade of the
Casino opposite.

"I know," she answered; "I don't think I shall risk anything more. I
wonder what Madame will say!"

"Well, she can only congratulate you and tell you not to risk anything
further."

"Isn't she quaint?" she asked. "And yet she's such a dear old
thing--although so very old-fashioned."

I was extremely anxious to get to the bottom of her acquaintance with
that veritable prince of adventurers, Regnier, yet I dare not broach the
subject, lest I should arouse suspicion. Who was that ugly old woman at
the Bristol? I wondered. She was Madame Vernet, it was true, but what
relation they were to each other Pierrette never informed me.

At half-past six, after I had taken her along the Galerie to look at the
shops, and through the Casino gardens to see the pigeon-shooting, I ran
her back to Beaulieu on the car, promising to return for her in the
morning at eleven.

Madame seemed a strange chaperon, for she never signified her intention
of coming also.

About ten o'clock that night, when in dinner-jacket and black tie I
re-entered the Rooms again, I encou