‘Good morning. You wish to become a member of the club? Yes? A little formality is necessary. The committee, which I usually represent, decides upon the eligibility of candidates. There is no election, no subscription, and no entrance fee, so that it is a mere form.’
Castiglione watched the man attentively during this speech, which was delivered in a glib and oily manner, and he wondered to what nation the keeper of the gambling-hell belonged, for he had never seen a specimen of the breed before, though it flourishes from Port Said and Constantinople to San Francisco by way of Paris, London, and New York. Like the cholera, it appears to have its origin in the East. The specimens speak every language under the sun with equal fluency and correctness, but always with a slightly foreign accent, and they are neither Christians, Jews, nor Turks, but infidels of some other kind. He who has not had business with a Levantine blackleg or a Hindu money-lender does not guess what guile dwells in the human heart.
Castiglione looked at the ‘treasurer’ and sat down on a gilt chair. The man followed his example, and they faced each other with the table between them.
‘Yes,’ said the Captain, as if agreeing to the conditions of membership, which indeed seemed extremely easy to fulfil, ‘I quite understand. But before joining your club I should like to ask for a little information. I am told that the members sometimes play games of chance. Am I right?’
‘Occasionally,’ replied the treasurer, ‘they do.’
‘Just so. I am an officer, as you may have guessed. Now, in the other clubs to which I belong, you must be aware that we generally play with counters, and that we settle once a week. Is that the practice in your club, too?’
The treasurer smiled. Castiglione thought his face was like a mask of Mephistopheles modelled in whitish ice-cream.
‘No. We play only for cash here.’
‘A very good way, too,’ said Castiglione in a tone of approval. ‘But I will suppose a case. If, for instance, a member of the club loses all the cash he has brought with him, and if it is rather late in the evening, and he wishes to go on playing in the hope of winning back something, is there no way by which he can borrow a little money without going home to get it?’
‘Oh, yes,’ answered the treasurer, falling into the snare. ‘When the committee is quite sure that a member is able to pay we are always glad to accommodate him with whatever he needs.’