They were approaching the Rue Crois de Petits Champs, and she stopped upon the pavement and positively clutched his arm.
"And will the wheel you saw actually be used at Monte Carlo?" she asked in a voice that had suddenly become almost breathless.
He nodded, too surprised to speak.
"And you touched it?"
"Oh, yes; I twirled the beastly thing round, if that's what you mean. But why all this interest?"
Again for a moment she answered nothing, though her face had grown suddenly pale from excitement.
"I cannot tell you," she said at length, "though it may seem strange to you. It is a sudden thought, that is all. And, oh, Basil, dear, I somehow believe that it is a good omen, that it means fortune for both of us. Oh, I'm certain of it."
"What a queer little darling you are!" he said, with a laugh at her earnest manner. "But we must not block up the pavement like this. Come along."
They went onwards to their destination, a quaint little restaurant known as the "Restaurant de l'Universe et Portugal," which they had discovered some weeks before, and where one could get a really excellent dinner for two francs fifty a head.
For the remaining three minutes of their walk neither of them said anything. Every pulse in Ethel's body was leaping with excitement.